Tharisa sees H1 drop in profit, revenue amid volatile commodity prices
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Dual-listed platinum-group metals (PGMs) and chrome producer Tharisa delivered a “solid” financial and operational performance in the six months ended March 31, despite volatile commodity prices, says its CEO.
“While revenues for the first half of the year were impacted by the 27% drop in PGM prices and a 32% drop in metallurgical grade chrome prices, we remain profitable benefitting to some extent by the 30% weakening in the rand against the dollar and by our decisive move to increase our output of the higher-value specialty chrome concentrates, which is demonstrated by an improved gross profit margin,” CEO Phoevos Pouroulis said on Monday.
The company, which last week listed on the LSE, reported a 37% year-on-year fall in profit to $3.1-million, while revenue decreased by 30.5% year-on-year to $86-million owing to a 27% drop in average PGM prices to $686/oz in the six months under review.
Pouroulis stated that the company had seen dramatic price movements in the first half of the year, but that there had been a strong recovery in chrome prices and a slower rise in PGMs since the end of March, which was encouraging.
Meanwhile, headline earnings a share were flat at $0.01, while net cash flows from operating activities increased by 18.2% to $18.2-million from $15.3-million in the first half of the prior financial year.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of $14.7-million were recorded, while net debt was reduced by $9.8-million to $30.9-million during the period under review.
“In the first half of the year, we more than doubled our specialty grade chrome production to over 105 000 t, compared with just over 47 000 t last year,” Pouroulis pointed out.
“The company increased its production over the period, helping to bring down the cost per unit,” he added, while noting that the weakness in the South African rand had also helped to lower costs and protect margins.
He further noted that in the first half of the year Tharisa produced 60 000 oz of PGM’s and 604 400 t of chrome concentrate.
Looking ahead, Tharisa said it was focused is on improving feed grades into its processing plants and that it was targeting a number of initiatives to improve PGM and chrome recovery.
“Our key asset is our long-term advantage of being a low-cost producer through our 20-year Tharisa mine, which gives us a life-long competitive advantage,” he stated
Comments
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation