MIMOSA Platinum Mine has revealed that quarterly revenues to the end of September declined to $33.5m from the previous quarter’s $39.5m after incurring a $5.3m “negative” sales adjustment.
Zvishavane-based Mimosa mine is run jointly by Aquarius Platinum and Impala Platinum, the world number-two producer of the metal.
The Platinum Producers Association of Zimbabwe said this week it was working on the development of a platinum refinery inside Zimbabwe.
Both Aquarius’ and Implats’ units in Zimbabwe, as well as a unit of world number-one platinum miner Anglo American Platinum, are members.
However, combined platinum production, which is likely to top 365,000oz this year, has to pass 500,000oz to sustain such a refinery.
Mimosa’s production attributable to Aquarius for the 2014 first-quarter period ended September 30 declined from 28,584oz in the previous quarter to 27,555oz, Aquarius Platinum reported on Thursday.
Mimosa recorded overall platinum output of 55,110oz during this period.
“The quarter in question was yet another challenging quarter on all fronts,” said Aquarius CEO Jean Nel, highlighting that Mimosa’s “cost performance” was in line with forecasts.
He said, however, that the platinum mining group’s “business remains marginal at prevailing metal prices”, and that there appeared to be no imminent “improvement” in metal prices.
Mimosa mine also recorded a marginal increase in cash production costs, which increased 1% year on year but declined 4% to $838/oz on a quarterly basis.Advertisement