Sylvania reaches record production in fourth quarter

Low-cost platinum group metal processor and developer Sylvania Platinum announced its results for the quarter ended 30 June on Friday, from its production and development operations in the Bushveld region of South Africa.

The AIM-traded firm said Sylvania Dump Operations produced 16,219 ounces for the fourth quarter, the second highest achieved in the company's history and 9% higher than the previous quarter, contributing to an annual record of 60,643 ounces.

Operating cash cost was down 4% in rand terms to ZAR 6,070 per ounce, compared with ZAR 6,317 per ounce.

Capital expenditure was also down 18% quarter-on-quarter to $0.3m, from $0.4m.

Sylvania confirmed there were zero lost-time injuries during the quarter, as well as for the year.

“Most platinum companies continue to fight losses due to the depressed platinum basket price and rising costs,” said Sylvania CEO Terry McConnachie.

“Despite these negative market conditions, where Sylvania, like other platinum miners, have very little influence on such fundamentals, we are however easily managing to keep our head above water by making sure production targets are achieved, costs are continuously reduced and capital spending is controlled by stringent allocation discipline.

“Our costs are lower this year than they were last year and our capital expenditure is just less than 4% of turnover at 3.59%,” McConnachie added.

He said Sylvania achieved an exceptional production quarter and, for the first time ever, exceeded 60,000 ounces of production for the year.

“Moreover, costs on the lowest quartile of any producer have resulted in Sylvania generating a decent net profit.

“We are proud that this year we paid back our pipeline finance package and bought back 7,383,974 Sylvania shares,” McConnachie explained.

He added that the company has also achieved the milestone of one year lost time injury-free across all operations and received no Section 54 Stoppage Orders for the year, nor did it have any electricity load-shedding affecting operations.

“Wage negotiations for our Western Operations are underway and we anticipate a decision before the end of the next quarter, whereas our Eastern Operations were negotiated as applicable for two years and as such remain in force until 2017.

“I am delighted with the Sylvania production performance, not only this quarter but over the past year,” McConnachie commented.

“The record ounce production is testament to the abilities of our operation management team's abilities to optimise the opportunities before them.”