Wesizwe’s flagship Bakubung mine still on target

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Platinum miner Wesizwe Platinum remains within its targeted concentrate production output and project construction costs budget for its flagship Bakubung project, in Rustenburg.

Reporting on its 2015 financial year performance, the Chinese-backed company said that, during the year to December, the main and ventilation shafts were completed as scheduled at 825 m and 810 m respectively.

Further, services projects on site were on schedule, with an additional 20 MWa secured for the phase one power supply for the commissioning of the shafts and 1.5-million-litres-a-day capacity had been commissioned for permanent water supply to the mine.

With a number of milestones under its belt during the 12 months under review, Wesizwe had started the process of enquiry for the engineering, procurement and construction management and front-end engineering for the process plant.

“The updated feasibility study of the Bakubung project was tested by the auditors for an impairment assessment and still continues to yield very encouraging results,” the company added.

The plant was expected to be commissioned in the third quarter of 2019.

The Bakubung mine would reach full production late in 2020 – two-and-a-half years ahead of schedule – with an initial 230 000 t/m production rate planned for October 2020.

Wesizwe also increased its capital commitments for the next 12 months to R465-million, up from R430.1-million in 2014.

Meanwhile, Wesizwe posted a loss for the year under review of R557-million, compared with the loss of R263-million recorded in 2014.

The group’s headline loss a share widened from 0.66c in 2014 to 27.56c in 2015, while the basic loss a share plunged to 34.20c in the year under review, compared with the loss of 16.17c posted in the prior year.

No dividend was declared for the period.

Wesizwe reported cash on hand of R1.4-billion as at December 31, 2015.