Unki Mine’s platinum group metals (PGM) production for the first quarter to March 31, 2021 rose by 4 percent to 50 900 ounces compared to same period in the prior year despite Covid-19 related disruptions.
The Anglo-American Platinum’s local unit output increased by 4 percent to 22 600 ounces while palladium rose by 2 percent to 20 000 ounces as the mine partly benefited from grade improvement, Anglo said in a statement Thursday.
Unki, a Midlands province-based miner started operations in 2011 and is the youngest operating platinum mine in Zimbabwe, home to the world’s second largest reserves of platinum after South Africa.
Anglo’s overall production increased by 3 percent on the back of strong performances at the copper operations in Chile and iron-ore operations in South Africa.
This helped offsetting plant maintenance downtime at Minas-Rio iron-ore mine in Brazil, and the suspension at the Moranbah metallurgical coal operation in Australia.
PGMs production rose by 7 percent to just over one million ounces compared to same quarter last year, with platinum production being 6 percent higher at 468 100 ounces.
Auto-catalyst metal palladium output rose by 9 percent to 330 500 ounces.
The improved performance was attributable to the lower impact from Covid-19 in the quarter.
The second wave of the pandemic early this year led to a staggered return-to-work process in order to ensure effective management of Covid-19 protocols.
This impacted January production, particularly at Amandelbult and Mototolo in South Africa, leading to a loss of 27,000 PGMs ounces, but significantly lower than 61 000 PGM ounces lost in the same quarter last year due to Covid-19 related shutdowns.
Anglo’s thermal coal production decreased by 20 percent year-on-year to 4,9-million tonnes, coal production fell by 14 percent to 3,3-million tonnes due to prolonged suspension of Grosvenor operations following an underground gas incident in May 2020.
Grosvenor is set for re-opening in May with safety inspection already underway.
Copper production increased by 9 percent to 160 000 tonnes, as a result of strong performances at the Los Bronces and Collahuasi operations.
Diamond output increased by 7 percent to 7,2-million carats.
HERALD
