Valterra Platinum Ltd. said first-half profit likely fell as much as 98% after flooding curbed mine output and it incurred costs related to its recent spinoff from Anglo American Plc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earnings declined as sales volumes of platinum-group metals dropped by 25%, the Johannesburg-based company \u2013 formerly known as Anglo American Platinum Ltd. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Heavy rain and flooding in February disrupted operations at the firm\u2019s Amandebult mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Profit was also hit by R1.4 billion in one-off demerger-related costs when Valterra split from Anglo at the start of June, as part of the London-listed group\u2019s ongoing restructuring process. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anglo last year committed to offloading its coal, nickel, platinum and diamond businesses to focus on its iron ore and copper assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While Valterra and its peers in South Africa, which is by far the world\u2019s largest platinum producer, have been tackling a prolonged slump in PGM prices, there have been signs of improvement due to investment demand and jewelry fabrication in China. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Platinum and palladium have risen 58% and 43%, respectively, this year \u2013 with most of those increases occurring since the beginning of May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, developments in the auto sector \u2013 the biggest consumer of PGMs \u2013 have created longer-term uncertainty around demand because electric vehicles don\u2019t currently use the metals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Valterra remains on track to meet its annual target for refined production of 3 million to 3.4 million ounces, albeit toward the bottom end of the range, the company said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The drop in earnings was partially offset by cost savings of R2.1 billion during the period, it said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The miner\u2019s shares rose as much as 5.1% in Johannesburg trading. Valterra has gained almost 24% since the firm separated from Anglo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Valterra Platinum expects a major drop in profit following its demerger from Anglo American Platinum. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":817883,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[22100],"class_list":["post-832085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-valterra-platinum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=832085"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":832090,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832085\/revisions\/832090"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/817883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=832085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=832085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=832085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}