LONMIN reported a 23% jump in underlying profits in the year to September 30 on Friday, buoyed by a strong performance at its platinum mines, and predicted a further improvement in the current year. The mining rump of the late Tiny Rowland’s former Lonrho empire, which last month withdrew a bid for Ghana’s Ashanti Goldfields, said pre-exceptional profits from continuing operations reached $190-million from $154-million a year earlier. Lonmin’s South African platinum mines generated a record profit before tax of $125-million during the group’s first full year as a focused mining company from $104-million a year earlier.