JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Partly offset by the weakening rand, JSE-listed Pallinghurst Resources saw a loss of $149-million for the year ended December 31, 2015, compounded by a decrease in the share price compared and an 8% decrease in the company’s net asset value.
Pallinghurst CEO Arne Frandsen said that the high market volatility in 2015 made it difficult to appropriately value the company’s two unlisted platforms, Sedibelo in the Bushveld Complex in South Africa and Jupiter in Australia.
Sedibelo Platinum Mines achieved a production record in 2015 with yearly dispatches of nearly 175 000 4E PGM ounces. However, with the metal prices being at very depressed levels, Sedibelo was expected to report a loss for the year.
Tshipi Borwa, located 20 km southwest of Hotazel at the Kalahari Manganese Field, had successfully established itself as one of the world’s largest manganese mines.
Frandsen noted that the mine produced at a rate “well in excess of” 2-million tons a year in the past financial year.
“The focus has not been on volumes, however, but on profitability per ton of ore produced and sold; and so we have recently decided to cut back on output,” he said.
Gemfields Mozambique, meanwhile, announced an investment into Colombia, which was expected to increase its market share of emerald production.