Rustenburg Base/Precious Metals Refiners

 platinum mine/processing, oil refinery

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Production

Rustenburg Base Metal Refiners
The two metallurgical processing plants - the magnetic concentration plant (MC Plant) and the base metal refinery plant (BMR) - performed exceptionally well over the year, achieving record throughput levels. Base metal output (nickel, copper, and cobalt sulphate) exceeded the BMR's design capacity, resulting also in the production of nickel cathode being 13% higher than the levels achieved in 2002. Efficiencies and productivity also improved over the year, measured in terms of tons of base metals produced per employee. The de-bottlenecking of the MC Plant - to ease the treatment of expanded mine production - proceeded according to schedule.

Costs

Overall cost control was well maintained, with the unit cost falling by some 4,8% in 2003.

Capital expenditure

In line with the expansion review announced in 2003, the refining strategy was amended, resulting in the deferral and reduction of the capital expenditure associated with further de-bottlenecking of the BMR. This resulted in an allocation of only R83 million to capital expenditure, lower than the figure of R273 million projected in 2002. Of this amount, R28 million was committed to ongoing capital items and R55 million to expansion projects.

Outlook

Based on its good performance in 2003, RBMR is well geared to meet the challenges of 2004. The appropriate infrastructure, management systems, employee relations, and motivation levels now in place should ensure continuous improvement in performance over 2003.

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