JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Jubilee Platinum has reported a basic and headline loss a share of £1.40 for the six months ended December 31, 2012, on the back of a headline loss for the period of £4.13-million.

This was a slight contraction from the basic and headline loss of £1.25 a share and headline loss of £3.35-million for the comparative 2011 half-year.

Revenues for the platinum explorer, however, continued to improve in line with the ramp-up of the company’s smelter operations, increasing by a substantial 61.5% to £2.1-million from £1.3-million in the six months ended December 2011.

Gross profit of £750 000 reflected the increased throughput achieved at the company’s operations over the period under review.

Jubilee chairperson Colin Bird said in an interim results statement on Tuesday that, while the sector had grappled with low platinum prices, adverse exchange rates and labour unrest, he believed the company was well positioned to react to the volatility.

“We continued with our mine-to-metal strategy fully aware that the aforementioned difficulties might offer benefits to a small producer whose business model was dedicated to high-chrome platinum-group-metals sources and small mining operations,” he commented.

Operational Highlights
This strategy was bolstered over the period by Jubilee’s awarding of the rights to recover platinum-group-elements (PGEs) from an estimated 800 000 t of PGE-bearing chromite tailings and current arisings on the Dilokong chromite mine in the Eastern Bushveld of South Africa.

In addition, the company increased its shareholding in power subsidiary PowerAlt from 51% to 70% by way of issuance of Jubilee ordinary shares equivalent to R13.1-million.

This came as PowerAlt received approval from South African parastatal Eskom for the sale of up to 5.1 MW generated electricity to the utility

Electricity sales started in December with the full 5.1 MW target achieved in January, the impact of which would only be fully reflected on Jubilee’s income statement in the next financial period.

PowerAlt had further secured an option to increase the contracted sale of electricity generated to 10.7 MW.

Jubilee also increased its shareholding in subsidiary Jubilee Smelting and Refining to 100% through an earn-in agreement based on the capital invested by Jubilee.

Meanwhile, during the period under review, Jubilee subsidiary Tjate Platinum signed a term sheet in relation to a cash offer from a major mining company of R75-million for the Quartzhill farm portion, which was considered noncore to Tjate’s long-term mining plan. 

Looking ahead, the company reported that the Department of Mineral Resources was still considering applications for Jubilee’s other projects, including platinum mining right applications by subsidiary Maude Mining and Exploration, as well as prospecting rights for platinum and chromite.