Junior platinum-miner Barplats on Monday reported a headline loss per share for the year to June 2005 of 14 cents, from an 18,9 cent loss for the 2004 year.
Revenue for the year declined to R40,177-million from R112,893-million in 2004. Gross profit for the year totalled R3,454-million from a loss of R5,675-million.
During the year, Barplats had zero fatalities.
Barplats is a platinum-group metals mining company with two assets — the Crocodile River mine on the western limb of the Bushveld igneous complex near Brits in the North West province and the Kennedy’s Vale project on the eastern limb of the Bushveld igneous complex near Steelpoort in Mpumalanga.
At the start of the 2005 financial year, the company had only nine employees, and at the end of the year there were 504 company employees and 499 employees of service providers and sub-contractors on site.
Crocodile River mine’s Maroelabult section, previously mined by contractors, was reopened in July last year.
Development and trial mining began in July last year, and by February this year about 25 000 tonnes had been mined safely and cost effectively, vindicating the decision to return to conventional mining, Barplats said.
The Zandfontein section, ostensibly abandoned since 1991, was flooded to 10m above 1 Level.
Dewatering of the workings (now largely complete), safety and re-equipping — together with redevelopment of one of the declines to provide the main ore-conveyor way to surface — have been key objectives during the 2005 year, Barplats said.
The concentrator was found to be in a far worse physical condition than estimated at the start of the year.
The plant was totally refurbished and upgraded at a cost of R51-million, which included a new assay laboratory.
First ore was milled on March 14 this year and commissioning of the plant proceeded rapidly, with excellent recoveries.
Various ore types were fed into the plant during the commissioning period — including some that were bought in — in order to provide data for planning purposes and validate certain assumptions.
Encouraging results were obtained from the re-evaluation of previous studies conducted on the Kennedy’s Vale ore body. Feasibility studies will continue in the 2006 financial year.
The group received funding during the year of R150,6-million from Eagle, a British Virgin Islands-registered financier.
A significant portion of these funds was deployed in the various capital expenditure programmes, including the rehabilitation of the concentrator plant (R51-million), the reconfiguration of the group’s mining activities at Maroelabult (R28,2-million) and Zandfontein (R23,3-million).
During June this year, Nedbank granted Barplats a R120-million loan facility that is repayable in January 2006.
At June 30 2005, the group’s current liabilities exceeded its current assets by R200,2-million.
Barplats said it is in the process of raising long-term funding to expand the company’s mining operations and optimise the company’s funding profile.
However, the group’s position has been improved by the introduction of empowerment group Gubevu Consortium Investment Holdings as a 26% shareholder in Barplats on July 22 this year by way of an all-cash R172,8-million transaction.
In addition, the company has received cash of R71,7-million by drawing down the balance of the Nedbank R120-million facility and the repayment of R120-million to Eagle Worldwide Investments.
On January 31 next year, Barplats is required to repay the R120-million outstanding to Nedbank. — I-Net Bridge