ANGLO American Platinum (Amplats) suspended production at Tumela mine on February 20 following heavy rains in the region which flooded rivers and caused a nearby dam to collapse.
The mine, which is part of Amplats’ Amandelbult Complex in South Africa’s Limpopo province, comprises about 10% of the firm’s total concentrate production. However, the outage is unlikely to impact production guidance for this year of between three million and 3.4 million oz of platinum group metals (PGM), said Amplats.
While heavy rainfall also resulted in surface flooding that temporarily affected access to Amandelbult Complex, the main Dishaba mine, the concentrator and other infrastructure are “largely unaffected”, said Amplats. Operations at the Amandelbult Complex, except for the Tumela mine, restarted on 24 February, it said.
Flooding at Tumela “overwhelmed pumping capacity” and flooded certain of the underground workings and the main pump station. The rains were compounded by the collapse of th Bierspruit dam near Swartklip.
“The successful implementation of the emergency preparedness plans, including the temporary suspension of all operations at the Amandelbult Complex on Thursday 20 February, ensured the safe evacuation of all employees and contractors,” said Amplats.
Amplats said it would assess the impact of the rains and develop a recovery plan to bring Tumela safely back on line.
Union mine, also in the Swartklip area, is also thought to have been affected by the heavy rains. Amplats sold its 87% stake in Union mine to Siyanda Resources in 2017.
“The safety of all our employees and surrounding host communities are of the highest priority and we are, together with the authorities, ensuring that support is provided to those most affected by the floods,” it said.
On February 17, Amplats reported a 45% year-on-year decline in basic share earnings of R26.83/share owing to a 13% decline in its realised rand-denominated PGM basket price driven by multi-year price lows in palladium and rhodium which fell 24% and 30% respectively during the year.
Total PGM production fell 7% to 3.6 million PGM oz but Amplats drew on its inventory to record a 3% improvement in refined production of 3.92 million oz.
