Sibanye Stillwater Ltd. expects to report a loss for last year after slumping platinum-group metals prices and operational problems across its businesses forced it to take impairments of 47.5 billion rand ($2.5 billion).
The announcement is another blow for South Africa’s embattled mining industry, after Anglo American Plc’s platinum and iron ore units said they were consulting with labor unions over restructuring that could impact more than 4,000 jobs. Sibanye late last year announced it was cutting almost 1,500 jobs from its gold mines and began talks that could affect 4,000 more workers at its PGM operations.
“We have already taken proactive steps to address loss-making production at unprofitable operations and the group remains focused on ensuring the sustainability of our business and delivering on our strategical essentials through this period of low commodity prices,” Sibanye said in a statement on Wednesday.
Sibanye was down 4.7% as of 1:08 p.m. in Johannesburg trading, bringing its decline from a peak two years ago to 73%.
The company, which diversified from gold into PGMs and more recently battery metals, is battling a steep decline in the prices of most of the materials it mines.
Sibanye said it expects to report a loss per share for 2023 of 12.68 rand to 14.01 rand compared with a profit of 6.51 rand a share the previous year. Some of its impairments relate to its losses at its Stillwater palladium mine in the US – where high costs have led to job cuts and the shelving of an expansion plan – and the Sandouville nickel refinery in France.
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