Aquarius posts a loss as prices and output fall
MINER Aquarius Platinum yesterday posted a net loss for the third quarter, hit by weaker prices and a drop in production on the back of poor ground conditions, continuing safety stoppages and worse than usual absenteeism after the Christmas holidays.
The company, which has been hit along with the rest of the sector by a dramatic increase in “Section 54” temporary mine closures on safety grounds, posted a net loss of $9.4m (£5.7m) for the quarter to the end of March, a drop of $34.7m compared to the same period last year.
The firm’s shares dropped ten per cent on the disappointing figures.
Safety-related stoppages cost the South African platinum sector 300,000 ounces last year in lost output — about five per cent of global production.
But the department of mineral resources has said the industry needs a shake-up to cut deaths in the country’s mines, the world’s deepest and among its most dangerous.
Aquarius said production for the three months dropped by almost a fifth year-on-year to 97,802 PGM ounces from 118,887 ounces, hit not only by stoppages but by poor ground conditions and labour “go slows”.
“These unnecessary operational and regulatory headwinds are occurring against a backdrop of a pricing environment that remains relentlessly tough, with unabated on-mine cost inflation, little fundamental demand recovery and continuing volatility in financial markets,” Stuart Murray, chief executive of Aquarius, said in a statement.
He also added, however, that there has been a recent decline in “number and length” of Section 54 stoppages.