Johannesburg - Impala Platinum [JSE:IMP], the world’s second-largest miner of the metal, said production will fall 7% in the 12 months to end-June as the company recovers from major safety failures at its Rustenburg operations.
Impala will produce 1.34 million ounces of platinum in fiscal 2017 compared with 1.44 million ounces in the year ended June 30, the Johannesburg-based company said in a statement on Thursday. A conveyor-belt fire at Shaft 14 in Rustenburg damaged a vast amount of underground infrastructure, the producer said.
While chief executive officer Terence Goodlace has made safety a cornerstone of the company’s strategy, 11 employees died in accidents at Impala during the financial year. Goodlace announced his intention to resign in May, a day after an underground area at Rustenburg caved in, killing two employees.
The fatalities were “a devastating blow that reverberated across the group”, the company said. “The group is therefore enhancing its safety programmes to boost safe production compliance in a dependent safety culture.”
Impala’s headline earnings dropped 67% to R0.12 a share for the year to June 30, within the forecast range of R0.09 to R0.16 published on August 22. Production at Rustenburg will be 700 000 oz to 710 000 oz for 2017, Impala said. It will then build up to the previous target of 830 000 oz by 2020.