Rhodium was once again the top performer in the revenue basket for platinum group metals (PGMs) mining company Royal Bafokeng Platinum (RBPlat), the revenue of which was up 108.1% to R9 584.3-million in the six months to June 30.

The average rhodium price for the period increased threefold to $25 388/oz.

The JSE-listed company capitalised on the strong performance of the rhodium price, with a 33% increase in rhodium sales, assisted by the increased upper group two (UG2) mix at its BRPM mine, in the North West province.

“Over the last ten years, we have grown our business to now operate two world-class mines and concentrators as well as securing full ownership of the business,” outgoing RBPlat CFO Hanré Rossouw said.

RBPlat’s basket price per platinum ounce increased to R66 202/platinum ounce, or R42 600/per four element ounce, assisted by stronger dollar metal prices for all the company’s major metals, offset by 20% strengthening of the rand.

The strong performance in rhodium price and sales volumes shifted rhodium’s contribution to revenue from 30% last year to 45% during this half-year.

Platinum contributed 22.2% and palladium 20.9% to revenue, with the strong price performances of ruthenium and iridium resulting in them rising from a combined contribution of 2.9% to over 6% for the period.

On the cost front, labour costs reduced to 39% with the more mechanised Styldrift PGMs mine.

RBPlat incurred a further R13.5-million of operating costs relating to the care for employees and communities in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Administration costs decreased 7.3% year-on-year, including a 5.6% reduction in RBPlat’s corporate cost to R92-million, assisted by the continued benefit of optimisation initiatives that began in 2020.

Industry membership and market development contributions decreased by 35% to R22-million, mostly owing to the stronger exchange rate reducing the impact of dollar contributions.

Other costs were also marginally lower than in the corresponding previous period.

The BRPM mine reported a 221% increase in gross profit to just over R3.4-billion, while Styldrift reported an 837% increase to a gross profit of just short of R1.8-billion.

BRPM’s return on capital for the period was 34.7%, while Styldrift, with a larger capital base and not fully optimised yet, delivered a return on capital of 8.9%.

The return on capital of the combined operations was 18.3%, with the overall company at 15.5%.

BRPM earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) was R3.8-billion and Styldrift Ebitda R2-billion for the six months, nearly matching last year’s full-year Ebitda contributions.