Impala Platinum hit by safety stoppages

[miningmx.com] — IMPALA Platinum (Implats) lost 33,000 oz of platinum
production due to Section 54 safety stoppages during the six months to end-
December, which dropped underground mined production by more than 510,000
tonnes of ore.

Despite this, Implats CEO David Brown has been muted in his response to the safety
crack-down by the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) that triggered pointed
criticism from other platinum producers.

Brown described the situation on the Implats mines as “a difficult operating
environment as a result of a high number of Section 54 safety stoppage notices’.

But he added that Implats’s safety performance remained “unsatisfactory’ given that
six mine workers were killed at Implats’s Rustenburg operations during the six months
to end-December.

Three of these fatalities were due to falls of ground, while two were caused by
equipment-handling incidents and the most recent resulted from an explosive
incident.

Despite the lost production, Brown pointed out that Implats’s “mine to market or
managed production was virtually unchanged at 738,000 oz of platinum”.

Implats’s overall platinum sales volumes were 4.4% down at 766,000 oz (six months
to end-2010 – 801,000 oz) but revenues held up at R15.4bn (R15.3bn), thanks to
higher dollar platinum prices and a weaker rand/dollar exchange rate.

Headline earnings increased 67% to 575c a share (345c), but the interim dividend
was trimmed to 135c a share (150c).

– The writer owns shares in Impala Platinum.