Sylvania Platinum’s PGMs Production Declines 3 Percent in Q3

Sylvania Platinum’s (LSE:SLP) Q3 platinum-group metals (PGMs) production fell 3 percent quarter-on-quarter, the company announced on Monday (April 30).

Sylvania reported that PGMs production fell to 16,857 ounces for its third quarter, which ended March 31, citing delays that transpired in January as the main reason behind the slump.

“January 2018 was a particularly difficult month due to the impact of the delays with a license at our newly constructed Millsell tailings facility,” said CEO Terry McConnachie.

He added, “[w]hen the permissions were eventually received to use the new tailings facility, nearly barren waste slime on top of the dump had to be processed first,”

In addition to the delays in commissioning at the new Millsell tailings dam, Sylvania also experienced a temporary hydro-mining upset and lower PGMs feed grades at Millsell and Mooinooi during December 2017 and January 2018. It was also affected by delays in the construction of the Tweefontein MF2 module due to power supply constraints.

Despite a challenging start to the quarter, most operations performed well, and Sylvania delivered 6,631 ounces in March — its highest monthly PGMs production to date.

“All credit to our team for overcoming this problem towards the end of the third quarter. Once we migrated down into the higher grade feed the project rapidly started generating increased ounces, resulting in March being our highest ever ounce production month with 6,631 ounces,” stated McConnachie.

“This record production will help make up ounces in the fourth quarter in order to meet the revised guidance of 71,000 to 75,000 ounces,” he also said.

The firm’s gross basket price for PGMs for the quarter was up 7 percent from Q2, sitting at US$1,141 per ounce. Sylvania also saw its revenue rise 3 percent, from US$14.1 million to US$14.5 million, thanks to the uptick in basket price.

As of 2:55 p.m. EST on Monday, Sylvania’s share price was trading at GBX 16.

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Securities Disclosure: I, Nicole Rashotte, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.