SYLVANIA Platinum said the development of exploration assets was an important pillar of its strategy despite its focus on short-term returns.
Commenting in its first (September) quarter for the 2023 financial year, CEO Jaco Prinsloo said an optimisation study of the firm’s Northern Limb prospects demonstrated “attractive projects with significant upside potential across our entire Northern Limb asset portfolio”.
The Northern Limb projects include the La Pucella target area which will be subject to a mineral resource estimate. Also in the region is the Hacra Project. It will undergo an MRE with a maiden mineral resource due early in the 2023 calendar year.
During 2023, new projects will be commissioned: the Tweefontein MF2 asset set to contribute production in the third quarter and the Lannex MF2 project which is under construction and due for commissioning at the end of the fourth quarter.
Sylvania is also running a preliminary economic assessment of the Volspruit project following an updated MRE on the project’s Volspruit North section which is rich in rhodium.
Sylvania operates contracts with chrome mine owners in which it retreats tailings returning the chrome to the mine owner while selling the platinum group metals.
It reported group earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of $26.4m for the first quarter owing to higher output and an improvement in the basket price. First quarter metal production totalled 19,194 4E PGM oz compared to 18,837 oz produced in the first quarter of the previous year.
The average 4E gross basket price for the quarter was $2,650/oz compared to an average of $2,589/oz in the previous (fourth) quarter.
In September, Sylvania declared an eight British pence per share dividend for its 2022 financial year despite a disappointing performance party owing to a 23% decrease in the average PGM basket price.
