JSE-listed Jubilee Metals Group says it delivered an operational performance broadly in line with management’s expected earnings and revenue targets for the six months ended December 31.

This performance was mainly supported by the performance of its South African platinum group metals (PGMs) and chrome operations, which largely buffered the impact of the power and water infrastructural challenges faced in Zambia, which have since been addressed.

SOUTH AFRICA

The company’s newly expanded Inyoni facility continued to perform, delivering 18 208 oz of PGMs for the interim period, despite an increase in power outages experienced at its South African operations.

Chrome production benefited from increased capacity, delivering 634 111 t of chrome concentrate, with chrome production on track to exceed full-year guidance of 1.2-million tonnes of chrome concentrate.

Jubilee’s enlarged chrome processing capacity was used to accelerate the production of PGMs feed material to increase PGMs feedstock by a further 5 016 oz of PGMs to better buffer the Inyoni PGMs facility from increased power outages.

In November 2022, Jubilee implemented back-up power units at its Windsor 8 chrome operations. The expansion of the power facility is currently under review to further protect the chrome operations that supply the feed to the Inyoni facility.

Since commissioning, the back-up power units have delivered in excess of 650 hours of back-up power.

Operational cost net of chrome credits remained tightly under control at $516/oz of PGMs, which is well below target despite a much lower credit from chrome production owing to a softer chrome metal price.

PGM and chrome metal prices were softer over the period with chrome recovering sharply post the reporting period.

The South African operations experienced additional operational downtime relating to a safety incident at an engineering service provider that resulted in a fatality. Following the incident, Jubilee has implemented measures to assume a more direct safety management role for its service providers.

The combined South African operations have achieved 52 days without a lost-time injury, with a lost-time injury frequency rate of one.

ZAMBIA

Copper production was down 10% on the previous six months, to 1 149 t, with in-process stock from processed material at Roan having increased to about 830 t of contained copper.

Overall production fell below the targeted 3 000 t of copper for the period, with the Zambian operations suffering severe disruptions owing to countrywide power outages that resulted in prolonged downtimes and damage to plant and equipment, which impacted its ability to operate as intended and as effectively.

Jubilee says it has taken decisive corrective action to invest a further $2.5-million to end-January to address and overcome the infrastructural challenges, which has resulted in an upgraded privately owned water infrastructure, further upgraded power infrastructure with additional secured power and the replacement of damaged equipment.

At Sable, Jubilee successfully completed the first cobalt production runs from waste. The success of the trials has motivated the further expansion of the cobalt circuit to increase cobalt production from waste and is seen as a means to mitigate the impact on group earnings from reduced copper production.

REFINED ZAMBIAN STRATEGY

Jubilee has updated the implementation of its copper and cobalt expansion strategy to better align the targeted increased operational footprint with the in-country available power infrastructure, resulting in the potential to accelerate the roll-out of the Northern copper and cobalt strategy.

The refined strategy follows a joint review by the Zambian authorities and the Jubilee project team.

The Sable Refinery will initially maximise cobalt production in the short term to facilitate the targeted expansion of the Roan copper operations, targeting output of 450 t a month of cobalt hydroxide from recycled waste alone by end May.

2023 FULL-YEAR PROSPECTS

In South Africa, the new, enlarged PGM and chrome operations have created the platform to deliver up to 44 000 oz of PGMs and 1.2-million tonnes of chrome concentrate a year from Jubilee’s own capacity.

Owing to the continued uncertainty over stable power supply, and the expected time-lag to expand the back-up power supply for operations, the company feels it prudent to update its full-year guidance to 38 000 oz of PGMs from own production for full-year 2023, with the continued option to add a further 8 000 PGM ounces from third party processing agreements dependent on stock and power availability.

Jubilee continues to progress discussions to secure a further PGMs processing footprint in the Eastern Limb of the Bushveld Complex with final design reviews underway for the chrome beneficiation facility that will precede the PGMs facility on the Eastern Limb.

During the period, Jubilee has increased its ownership of existing tailings resources in support of the expansion target on the Eastern Limb and is reviewing the option to either secure a decommissioned PGM facility that will be repurposed by Jubilee, or to construct a new facility in the region.

In Zambia, guidance for full-year 2023 will be updated following the completion of the initial expansion of the cobalt refining circuit currently underway.

The company expects to release its results for the period on or about March 20.