Jubilee Metals Group PLC posts four-fold jump in interim pretax profit and sees

() posted a four-fold jump in interim pretax profit on higher PGM production and prices and said it expected 2021 to be another transformational year.

Pretax profit surged to £24.4mln in the six months to end December, from £6.6mln in the year-earlier period, as revenue more than doubled to £53.4mln. Attributable earnings for the six-month period soared 212% to a record £30.9mln.

PGM production for the six-month period rose 34% to 28,187 ounces. The AIM-listed company reported record output during December, despite the planned scale down of operations at Jubilee’s Eland joint venture PGM partner. Chrome production for the six-month period jumped 72 % to 319,834 tonnes of saleable chromite concentrate.

“Despite the unprecedented challenges posed by the ongoing pandemic, H2 2020 was a period of significant growth for the company,” said chief executive Leon Coetzer.

“On the back of new third party and ore supply agreements as well as improved efficiencies across our chrome and PGM operations, we have delivered both record production and financial performance at our South African operations.”

Jubilee’s Sable Refinery achieved early earnings from its copper and cobalt production as part of securing operational readiness to accept first output from Project Roan, producing a total of 1,447 tonnes of plated copper cathode to date.

The construction of the first processing facility, named Project Roan, has started and will be commissioned in three phases to allow the early production of partially upgraded copper concentrates for refining at the Sable Refinery.

Jubilee secured the rights to in excess of 300 million tonnes of copper and cobalt containing material at surface, which combined will be the primary feed source to the three copper and cobalt processing facilities being targeted for construction.

“We are now ramping up production with the first copper concentrator currently under construction at Project Roan and set to commence delivery of the first intermediate copper concentrate to Sable Refinery within the next three weeks,” said CEO Coetzer. “We are fully committed to achieving our target of producing 25,000 tonnes of copper per annum within the next four years.”

“We are excited about the potential for our copper operations to deliver significant earnings and believe that current prices can not only be maintained but also be increased upon,” added chairman Colin Bird.

“We expect the year 2021 to be another transformational year for the company with South Africa maturing and Zambia evolving, and we are confident that we can grow our earnings consistent with our internal forecast,” he added.