Northam Platinum’s production rose in the first half as investment in its Eland mine started to bear fruit.
In a voluntary production update on Wednesday, the miner reported an almost 15% increase in chrome output and a 3.7% uptick in platinum group metals (PGM) ounces for the six months ended December.
Eland, the ramp-up of which is central to the group’s growth strategy, saw production surge just shy of 45% year on year, it said, citing concentrator upgrades and an ongoing ramp-up of stoping, which helped boost feed grades and volumes.
The group has high hopes for Eland, a shallow PGM and chrome asset acquired from mining giant Glencore in 2017 for R175m, which it sees becoming a significant chrome producer in the coming years.
The asset’s stellar performance in recent months buoys faith in this year’s R5.2bn capital expenditure plans, aimed at lifting company-wide output to 910,000oz-930,000oz of PGM in the current financial year.
The miner, which extracts PGM and chrome from three wholly owned mines in Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North West, said previously that meeting this target would depend on “heavy lifting” to bring Eland up to speed with its other two operations.
Eland’s surging production has reinforced confidence in the strategy. After delivering just shy of 900,000oz in equivalent refined metal production for the year ended June, Northam recorded 467,818oz of PGMs and 822,759oz of chrome concentrate for the six months to end-December.
The company is hopeful that the progress will ease the pressure on its balance sheet, with Eland having bled cash in the ramp-up to steady state. It posted operating losses of nearly R585,000 in the 2024 financial year and a R768,000 loss in 2025.
As platinum prices offer substantial tailwinds, signs of Northam’s growing production profile have been welcomed by investors on the JSE.
Shares in the miner have skyrocketed more than 250% in the past 12 months, outperforming large-cap competitors Valterra and Impala Platinum while pushing its market cap to a record R149bn this week.
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