JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Platinum Australia, which owns mines in South Africa, on Friday announced that it had widened its loss for the six months ended December 31, 2009, to A$14,5-million, compared with a loss of $4,8-million the year before.

This was the first time that the Smokey Hills mine had been in operation for the full six months. Open pit mining had been completed and the overburden removal costs of A$8,1-million had been written off as part of the cost of sales, which impacted on the group’s operating profit.

Further, the platinum-miner’s exploration costs had increased has a result of the writing off of the A$2-million purchase price of the Rooderand property.

Meanwhile, Platinum Australia reported that a total of 170 045 t of ore had been mined from the open pit section of the mine, while a further 136 035 t of ore had been mined from the underground operations.

The processing plant had ramped up to processing 310 552 t of ore, which equated to about 86% of the plant’s design capacity.

Platinum Australia had shipped 20 675 oz of four-element platinum-group metals from the Smokey Hills project.

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