Zim mine partially offsets Amplats SA poor perform...

Zim mine partially offsets Amplats SA poor performance

Zim Now Writer

Improved plant stability at Unki Mine has helped Anglo American Platinum offset lower production performance in South Africa, Amplats CEO Natascha Viljoen has said.

Production at Unki Mine has helped Amplats offset impact from reduced production in SA

Viljoen said 2023 Q1 quarter performance reduction which is aligned with expectation and mine sequencing and was also impacted by high rainfall and downtime at the Mogalakwena Baobab plant was “partially offset by a strong performance from Unki following the successful concentrator debottlenecking” in Zimbabwe.

She said production from Unki increased by 17% to 62 500 ounces, attributable to “improved plant stability post the debottlenecking project completed in Q4 2021 with improvements in throughput, grade” and recoveries.

Amplats share value fell by about 2.3% in trade on the JSE this week to around R107.48 following announcement that first quarter production had dropped by 6 percent.

Amplats’s Polokwane and Waterval smelters have been affected by load shedding , with the knock-on effects resulting in 13 percent reduction in sales to 698 600 ounces.

South Africa is facing severe power shortages with load shedding likely to be a big challenge in 2023, thus negatively impacting on mining operations and other industries.

Meanwhile in Zimbabwe, the national power utility Zesa has recently announced an in improvement in power supply with reduced load shedding already being implemented.