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Johannesburg - Mining group Merafe Resources (MRF) on Thursday announced that it generated headline earnings per share of 3.05c for the year ended December 2005 from 1.67c in the nine months to December 2004.
Revenue for the year was R615m from R502m for the nine months to December 2004.
Profit for taxation totaled R73.523m from R20.724m in the nine months to December 2004.
Merafe's main source of income is generated from its chrome venture with Xstrata South Africa, in the form of the Xstrata-Merafe Chrome venture.
Following the Wonderkop acquisition, Merafe's share of the earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by a further 3% to 17% and the managed capacity to 1.56 million tonnes from November 16 2005.
The 17% share of EBITDA would increase to 20.5% from July 1, 2006.
With Project Lion being commissioned in the third quarter of 2006, the total managed capacity of the Xstrata-Merafe Chrome venture would increase to 1.92 million tonnes, the company said.
Standing charges attributable to Merafe due to the temporary closure of furnaces were R10.5m.
Modifications were made in 2005 to the Boshoek furnaces as part of the refurbishment undertaken during the winter shutdown.
Operating costs were well contained in 2005 despite lower production volumes, Merafe Resources said.
Unit costs fell by R48 per tonne in real terms (excluding standing charges) compared to 2004, due to lower coke prices, mechanical improvements at the Boshoek furnaces and improved furnace efficiencies resulting from higher pellet availabilities.
Higher underground production volumes from the Kroondal mine, especially after the acquisition of the Marikana reserves announced in July 2005, enabled the lower quality opencast operations at Kroondal and Boshoek to be scaled down by 200 000 tonnes of run-of-mine production, Merafe Resources said.
The Horizon mine was refurbished during 2005 with the objective of improving yields and production costs and was recommissioned in December 2005.
Merafe Resources said that it expected a recovery in the second half of 2006 as both stainless steel melt production and ferrochrome demand gained momentum, with China again anticipated to drive this growth.