Metals processing company Jubilee Metals reported that annual profits slumped due to the increase in costs after its capitalisation and expansion programme.
The profit of the company — which operates in SA, Australia, Mauritius, Zambia and the UK — more than halved to £18.37m (R382.19m), while headline earnings from continuing operations decreased by a similar margin to £17.13m (R356.36m). However, its cost of sales increased by 53.4% to £94.67m (R1.98bn)
Jubilee spent £58m (R1.21bn) on its capital expansion project, which included funding the acquisition and refurbishment of processing facilities in SA’s platinum group metals (PGMs) and chrome-rich Bushveld Complex and the copper-rich southern region of Zambia.
The company, valued at R678bn on the JSE, has steadily grown its business in SA over recent years and made two acquisitions in 2019, adding the Inyoni chrome and PGM business, as well as the Sable refinery in Kabwe, Zambia, to advance its metal diversification and spread its geographic risk.
Revenue increased by 5.4% to £140m (R2.91bn), it said on Tuesday in its full-year results to end-June. The bulk of this was generated from PGMs and chrome, with more than four-fifths from copper and 13.1% from cobalt.
The total amount of PGMs sold decreased by close to one-fifth to 41,586oz, while copper almost doubled to 2,604oz. More than four-fifths of PGMs sold came from Inyoni.
In November, the group commissioned an upgrade to its Inyoni PGM facility, saying previously that that expansion brought its capacity to 75,000 tonnes of ore a month, from 45,000 tonnes previously. In May, the group said Inyoni was already exceeding design throughput targets, reaching 86,000 tonnes a month of chrome- and PGM-containing material.
Jubilee wants to continue targeting metals linked to a low-carbon future, particularly renewable energy production and battery storage as it believes its position and value to the global supply chain “will become increasingly entrenched”.
“This positive trajectory is a foretaste of what is to come to rapidly expand our operational footprint in Zambia and seize further growth opportunities in SA while holding the potential to replicate this success across multiple jurisdictions,” according to the company, which is listed on the alternative exchanges of the JSE and in London.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.