[miningmx.com] – IMPALA Platinum (Implats) is to report a 76% to 79% decline in half-year basic share earnings, a decline it put down to lower mine-to-market throughput, above inflation cost increases, and the impairment of long-term receivables totalling R603m.
Excluding the impairment, share earnings would have been between 59% and 62% lower. The period under review is for the six months ended December 31 and compares to the six months ended December 31 in 2011.
Implats didn’t provide details on the nature of the receiveables it had written down but the impairment more than hints at the distress within the platinum industry generally still recovering from a spate of labour protests that hurt suppliers and downstream industries.
In September, Implats said it had implemented a market adjustment for its employees, adding 4.8% to its wage bill.
“The overriding imperative for all stakeholders should be to ensure peace, stability and order, and in so doing, create an environment for safe production,’ Terence Goodlace, CEO of Implats said at the time.
It was the third time that Implats has agreed to improve wages for its employees over the last 12 to 18 months.
“The wage adjustment supports this imperative and our long-term strategy to establish a new multi-union industrial relations dispensation in our operations while moving towards a centralised wage engagement process for the platinum mining industry,’ Goodlace said.
Implats is scheduled to report its interim results on February 14.
