Tharisa cultivates H1 profit amid 'challenging times'

Platinum group metals and chrome co-producer Tharisa has cultivated a first half pre-tax profit of $4.5m, from a profit of $7.1m, amid what it labelled "challenging times".

"The six months under review were characterised by a challenging macroeconomic environment, where global commodity prices declined materially before recovering towards the end of the second quarter," the company said.

The average platinum group metals (PGM) basket price for the six-month period was $686 an ounce, a fall of of 27.4% on the year. Similarly, the average metallurgical grade chrome concentrate price for the six-month period was $106 a ton, down 32.1%.

Revenue in the Cyprus-based company was $86.0m, from $123.7m. Its shares -- admitted to London Stock Exchange's main market today -- were up 4.17% to 50p.

Tharisa's continued focus on achieving steady state production yielded positive production results with a 4.5% increase in production of PGM-contained metal of 60.0 koz and a 7.3% increase in chrome concentrate production of 604.4 kt.

It said steady-state PGM production was increased to 147.4 kozpa, while chrome concentrate steady-state production was revised to 1.33 Mtpa.