Published: 30 August 2017

Sibanye, which has changed its name to Sibanye Stillwater, swung deep into the red in the half-year to end-June, a result that had been widely flagged ahead of its results presentation on Wednesday.

It said group operating profit of R3,2bn was affected by a lower gold price and reduced gold production.

Operating profit from its gold operations was R2,4 billion - less than half the R5,3billion reported a year earlier.

The average gold price fell to R523 303/kg from R603 427/kg a year earlier. Gold output fell to 21 418kg from 23 229kg a year ago. All-in sustaining costs rose to R485 441/kg from R448 922/kg.

The South African platinum group metal (PGM) operations performed much better, posting operating profit of R505,5million, up sharply from R72.2m a year earlier, and the company said the turnaround was ahead of expectations.

The Rustenburg mines have been included in Sibanye's results since the period ending December 2016, and the Aquarius mines since June 2016.

The US PGM operations are new, and so there are no comparisons with previous periods, but they contributed an operating profit of R374 million.

Sibanye had warned the market that basic earnings would be hit by R4.4bn in one-off costs: a R2.8bn impairment on the loss-making Cooke and Beatrix West operations; a R1,1bn provision for the silicosis class action suit pending against several mining companies; and R402m for the acquisition of US platinum miner Stillwater.

The headline loss was R2,2 billion and the normalised loss R1 billion.

The exchange rate comparison with a year earlier was also not in Sibanye's favour. The average rand/dollar exchange rate was R13,21/$ in the six months to June 2017, from R15,38 in the period to June 2016.

On the safety front, six miners died during the review period.

The serious injury frequency rate improved by 18 percent to 3,96 for every million hours.

On the name change, CEO Neal Froneman said: "Over the course of the last year, the group has fundamentally changed, transforming from a gold mining company with its asset base entirely located in SA, into a leading international precious metals company, with assets on three continents." The company did not declare a dividend.

- BusinessLive

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