During the six months ended June 30, Aim-listed Bushveld Minerals continued to build on the firm foundation it has established, CEO Fortune Mojapelo said on Monday.
He noted that the integrated primary vanadium producer was “enjoying progress across the group” while establishing new platforms for future growth.
Bushveld reported earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) of $41-million and free cash flow generation of $23-million for the six months under review. These results were achieved during a period of weaker vanadium prices, which were about 14% lower year-on-year.
Bushveld further reported a net cash balance of $66.1-million at period-end, bringing its earnings a share to $0.019, up from the $0.016 reported in the first half of 2018.
However, even with this strong result, Mojapelo said the producer would be focusing its efforts at Vametco on further refining processes to maintain cost control.
According to Mojapelo, the operational performance at Vametco has improved as a result of the transformation programme, which was implemented at the start of the year.
Execution of the programme will continue for the rest of this year and into 2020, during which Bushveld intends to reach a state of production of 3 400 t/y of vanadium.
With the transformation programme successfully delivering, second-quarter production was the highest quarter for production in over two years. Production for the first half of the year was 1 392 t of vanadium, a 2% increase relative to the first half of 2018.
Bushveld remains on track to meet its full-year production guidance of between 2 800 t and 2 900 t of vanadium.
“At Bushveld Energy, the first half of 2019 has seen a broader and improved understanding of its innovative business model,” Mojapelo stated, adding that the combination of the electrolyte rental product and the current vanadium price was increasing confidence that vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs) would become a long-term feature of energy grids both in Africa and globally.
Bushveld expects these events to increase vanadium consumption from VRFBs during the second half of this year and beyond.