South Africa-based platinum group metals (PGMs) and gold miner Sibanye-Stillwater expects its headline earnings for the first six months of the year to fall by up to 53%, compared with the same period last year.

The company, which is the world's biggest primary producer of platinum, the second biggest primary producer of palladium and the third largest producer of gold, expects its headline earnings a share to be between 198c and 218c, compared with 423c in the first half of 2022. This represents a decline of 48% to 53%.

Earnings a share are expected to be between 249c and 275c, compared with 426c in the comparative period.

Sibanye-Stillwater attributes the decrease in earnings and headline earnings to a sharp decline in PGM prices, which resulted in a 22% decline in the average rand 4E PGMs basket price year-on-year and a 28% decline in the average US dollar 2E PGMs basket price.

4E PGMs production from the South African operations, including the purchase of concentrate, was flat at 848 723 oz, compared with 849 152 oz in the comparative period.

Sibanye-Stillwater’s US PGM operations reported lower production and higher unit costs, owing to the shaft infrastructure incident at its Stillwater West mine, in Montana.

The infrastructure was damaged in March during maintenance on the winder that services the vertical shaft accessing the mine’s deeper levels. The shaft headgear, winder house and winder rope sustained damage in the incident, but no workers were wounded. Production resumed in late April.

As a result, mined 2E PGMs production from Stillwater West reduced from 230 039 oz in the first half of 2022, to 205 513 oz in the first half of 2023.

Sibanye-Stillwater also reported that its US operations were experiencing ongoing critical skills shortages.

These negative financial impacts were offset by significantly improved operating and financial results from the South Africa gold operations, compared with the first half of last year when industrial action and a lockout affected the operations.

The South Africa-managed gold operations, excluding DRDGold, increased output by 23% to 10 411 kg (334 721 oz). In addition, a 22% increase in the average rand gold price also benefited the group during the six months under review.

The Neal Froneman-led miner will release its results for the six months ended June 30, on August 29.