Sibanye-Stillwater to halve Stillwater output, eyes $600-700m in metal sales

SIBANYE-Stillwater is to cut production at its US Stillwater palladium/platinum mine a further 200,000 ounces/year and is nearing additional prepayment deals on gold as well as chrome and platinum production that will bag it between $600m to $700m.The steps are intended to further shore up the miner’s balance sheet following another difficult operating period in the six months ended June in which negative free cash flow of R7bn was recorded.This was due to sustained low prices for platinum group metals (PGMs) in particular which resulted in non-cash impairments of R7.5bn. As guided in a trading statement last week, Sibanye-Stillwater’s basic earnings for the six months fell just over 100% to R7.47bn. A taxed loss of R7.1bn was suffered (2023 H1: +R7.8bn).Net debt consequently increased by R6.8bn to R18.7bn during the six months. As of June 30 Sibanye-Stillwater reported a 1.43x net debt to adjusted Ebitda ratio. This is, however, well below the recently renegotiated covenant with lenders of up to 3.5x adjusted Ebitda (from 2.5x previously).More deleveraging of the balance sheet is to come in the current six months because Sibanye-Stillwater is in “advanced stages of securing” additional metal sales agreements following its R1.8bn gold prepayment deal in August. These will be in chrome and PGMs from its South African assets, it said.But as largely expected, recent improvements in all-in sustaining costs at Stillwater mine in the US were to no avail. Sibanye-Stillwater announced the likelihood of further job losses at the mine as it takes annual production down to about 230,000 oz. 2E production at the mine in the period under review was 238,139 oz (2023 H1: 205,513 oz). The post Sibanye-Stillwater to halve Stillwater output, eyes $600-700m in metal sales appeared first on Miningmx.Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com