Amplats lifts quarterly output

• Miner hails Mogalakwena and says annual performance will be at upper end of forecast

Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) notched up increased output in the first quarter of 2018, with a standout performance from Mogalakwena, the best platinum mine in SA.

Amplats, the world’s leading source of mined platinum, reported a 7% increase in platinum production to 613,800oz for the first three months of 2018, while palladium was 9% higher at 407,400oz.

Using a fairly new metric, Amplats, which is majority owned by Anglo American, said that its total platinum group metal (PGM) output — which is a measure of five related metals plus gold — increased 8% to 1.29-million ounces. This is not a number the company has reported in the past, when it focused just on platinum.

Sales of PGMs were steady at 1.15-million ounces, while refined PGM production fell 11% the increase in production at Amplats’s three mines in the first quarter

the output in ounces of platinum achieved in the first three months of 2018 to 1.02-million ounces because of the planned maintenance of its converter plant.

Production at its three mines was 18% higher at 580,400 oz of PGMs after an “exceptional performance from Mogalakwena, supported by strong performances from all own-mined operations”, while the joint venture operations contributed 298,000oz, an increase of 14%.

The balance of metal came from purchases from third parties including Royal Bafokeng Platinum and SibanyeStillwater, which bought Amplats’s Rustenburg mines.

The Union mine was sold to Siyanda Resources in February and that metal is now thirdparty material.

Amplats expected full-year output would be at the upper end of a PGM forecast of 4.7million to 5-million ounces, of which up to 2.4-million ounces would be platinum and 1.6-million ounces palladium.