Impala Platinum Reports Significant Loss for Fiscal 2024 Amid Major Impairments
Impala Platinum Holdings, the world’s second-largest platinum miner, has reported a significant swing to a loss for fiscal 2024, as anticipated, due to a series of impairments. The company announced a basic loss of 17.31 billion South African rand (approximately $970.9 million USD) for the year ended June 30, compared to a profit of 4.905 billion rand (approximately $275 million USD) in the previous fiscal year. This result was in line with the company’s earlier guidance of a loss between 16.9 billion rand and 17.8 billion rand (approximately $947.9 million to $998.6 million USD).
The substantial loss was primarily driven by 19.8 billion rand (approximately $1.11 billion USD) in impairments, largely related to goodwill, property, plant, equipment, and the prepaid royalty at the Impala Rustenburg operation.
Excluding exceptional and one-off items, Impala’s headline earnings came in at 2.41 billion rand (approximately $135.2 million USD), down sharply from 18.80 billion rand (approximately $1.05 billion USD) the previous year. This figure was within the company’s guided range of 1.9 billion rand to 2.8 billion rand (approximately $106.6 million to $157.1 million USD).
Revenue for fiscal 2024 fell to 86.4 billion rand (approximately $4.85 billion USD) from 106.59 billion rand (approximately $5.98 billion USD), mainly due to a decline in the dollar price of platinum group metals (PGMs), despite a boost in production.
Overall, the company’s gross production of PGMs increased by 13% to 3.65 million ounces, with production from managed operations rising 21% to 2.92 million ounces, as reported on August 7.
Looking ahead, Impala Platinum expects to produce between 3.45 million and 3.65 million PGM ounces in the next fiscal year, at a cost of 21,000 rand to 22,000 rand per ounce (approximately $1,180 to $1,236 USD per ounce). The company also forecasts capital expenditure of 8 billion to 9 billion rand (approximately $449 million to $505 million USD), down from 14.0 billion rand (approximately $786 million USD) in fiscal 2024.
