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Johannesburg - Northam Platinum [JSE:NHM], one of South
Africa's smaller platinum producers, said it expected subdued earnings growth
as the industry grappled with increasingly violent labour unrest and depressed
prices.
The group on Friday posted full-year headline earnings 9.6%
lower, hit by a smelter shutdown which cut volumes available for sale.
Declining earnings have been reported across the platinum
sector and come against the backdrop of increasingly violent labour disruptions
at South African operations.
Headline earnings per share for the financial year to
end-June dipped to 80.9 cents from 89.5 cents. The group said it would pay a
dividend of 5 cents.
Production of precious metals in concentrates was up 15.4%
at 288,675 ounces and the company said its flagship Booysendal Mine was
expected to start production in the second half of its 2013 financial year.
Northam plans to launch a R2bn bond to raise additional
funding for the Booysendal project in South Africa.
More than half of the R4bn needed to fund the development,
which could double production, has been funded with internally generated cash.
Raising funds might prove challenging in light of the labour
unrest at platinum mines that last week resulted in 34 striking mineworkers
being gunned down at Lonmin's Marikana mine.
Northam acknowledged that it "may also be affected by
recent events in the industry" and this, combined with the economic and
social uncertainties in global markets, resulted in its outlook for earnings
growth remaining subdued.
Aside from fears that the unrest could spill over to other
mines in the Rustenburg area, platinum producers are grappling with rising
input costs and declining metals prices.
Shares of Northam have fallen along with those of the platinum majors, shedding more than 27% in the past year.
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