Aim-listed Sylvania Platinum’s basic earnings per share (EPS) improved by 66% to $0.0637 a share for the financial year ended June 30.

This is compared with the earnings of $0.0383 a share achieved in the prior financial year.

This improvement was mainly owing to the Sylvania Dump Operations (SDO) delivering 72 090 oz of platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold (4E) platinum-group metals (PGMs) for the year, marking the sixth consecutive year of record production.

As a result, net revenue increased by 12% to $70.5-million, with earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) up 36% year-on-year at $30.2-million.

Commenting on the results, CEO Terry McConnachie said he was optimistic that Sylvania would “continue to prosper” in the 2020 financial year.

Meanwhile, utility infrastructure and supply of power continued to present challenges to the operations and execution of expansion projects throughout the year for Sylvania.

Delays in the roll-out of the Project Echo secondary milling and flotation (MF2) module at Tweefontein, owing to power constraints, were counteracted by fast-tracking the MF2 module at Mooinooi.

The Mooinooi Project Echo MF2 module was commissioned earlier than planned, at the end of the third quarter of the 2019 financial year, which helped to increase PGM feed grades and ounces.

The relocation of the redundant Steelpoort chrome circuit to Lesedi, identified during 2018 as an opportunity to improve chrome removal ahead of flotation, was completed. Commissioning of this new section started in June.

It will further contribute to higher PGM feed grades and ounce production in the coming financial year, McConnachie noted on Monday.

Project Echo is still progressing well. The Tweefontein MF2 is the next module to be executed but construction is dependent on the completion of an infrastructure upgrade by Eskom to ensure stable and reliable power supply to the host mine and Sylvania's operation.

The upgrade by the power utility has begun and is expected to be commissioned by 2020.

FINANCIALS
Group cash costs decreased marginally by 2% year-on-year from $567/oz, while operating costs increased by 10% in rand terms from R495.4-million to R544.4-million.

All-in sustaining costs increased by 2% to $578/oz from $565/oz as a result of the increase in operational costs, and all-in costs of 4E increased by 3% to $672/oz from $655/oz recorded in the previous period, owing to the increase in capital spend.

Capital expenditure, in rand terms, was mainly spent on the Mooinooi Project Echo MF2 module and the Lesedi chrome section. The balance of the capital spend was on stay-in-business and optimisation projects, with the total spend for the year at R117.7-million.

To date, R139.3-million has been spent on Project Echo, which has an overall budget of R175-million.