Jubilee Metals Group plc (LON:JLP) Chief Executive Officer Leon Coetzer caught up with DirectorsTalk for an exclusive interview to discuss year-end results, operational and financial highlights, progress post year-end and the outlook for the company.
Q1: As announced, Jubilee Metals published results for the year ended 30th of June 2021, can you just talk us through the financial highlights please?
A1: I think the financial numbers speak for themselves as we told our shareholders, the past 12 month period was a period of delivery for our group and the numbers reflect that in all sectors of our business. We’ve delivered both operational and financial growth and the balance sheets strengthened dramatically over this period.
So, some highlights would be of course, the fact that on the one hand revenue has grown very strongly for our group driven by chrome revenues which is a dramatic expansion, as well as PGM revenues, we’ve experienced a period of strong PGM prices in the market and a strong demand and a strong performance of our group.
When operational earnings grow up and deliver just north of £70 million which translates to £52 million of profit after tax, it’s a strong performance from our group and it’s in line with what we told that our shareholders we will target to deliver on the operational front.
So, all in all, an exceptional financial performance I believe our company and our team has delivered.
Q2: Just looking at the operational front, what can you tell us about the highlights there?
A2: I think that’s an important point because our financial results are supported by a strong operational performance, not just a strong market for the metals we trading.
Operationally, we achieved that target we always set ourselves to achieve, which is at 50,000 Platinum Group Metal ounces delivered over a 12 month period and we’re very proud of the fact that we deliver that in a challenging period. It’s delivered in a period when we’ve commenced the construction and refocusing of our in Inyoni PGM plant, which is the backbone of our earnings.
Equally, if you look at the operational results from our chrome operations, the output of our chrome product, it’s a very important part of our business because it’s the chrome operations we run across South Africa that generates the very key feed for our PGM operations. So their growth translates into growth in our PGM operations.
Of course, then we excitingly, our copper industry, which is marked our entrance into Zambia, the copper production has commenced, it’s a year of earnings starting to come through in our copper production side of our company. It’s still small, of course, because really those numbers are purely based on the operational readiness tests we’re running at the Sable refinery, as we now get out for the very big step up in our copper production coming over the next period.
Q3: So, results were ended 30th of June, what has been happening post year-end?
A3: A lot as normal for the company, a lot of expansion, a lot of construction as we continuously strive to expand, not only in the area we operate, but also creating new areas within that brand of processing excellence in the processing of various waste materials.
So, during this period, of course, we’ve informed the market that we had to refocus our Inyoni PGM operations in South Africa from initially it was basically a project designed to process what was then a historical tails generated and stockpiled by Hernick following their financial demise. We had to completely repurpose this facility into a facility that is able to target a variety of feed sources, unique in its property, in the industry and that followed a number of announcements that allowed us to secure PGM materials across South Africa, creating the foundation for the future performance of Inyoni. .
It is a very challenging project to undertake, we so dramatically expanded and repurpose an operating facility, but I’m glad that that has been achieved. In fact, we inform the market that last month, October, what is actually more than a month and a half ago, we had completed that project and it’s now in full operation at Inyoni.
Of course, during this time as well, which is a very exciting growth part of our company, we’ve been constructing the Project Roan, that’s the copper project in Zambia. It’s now reaching completion and entering its commissioning phase, which is that first dramatic step up in our copper production in Zambia with that concentrating facility will be producing copper concentrates, which will be refined at our Sable refinery.
So, the past six months has been a very busy period for our projects team to be delivering both in South Africa and in Zambia, basically two new refining and concentrating facilities.
Q4: Looking forward to what’s on the horizon now and how do you view the outlook for Jubilee Metals?
A4: What’s on the horizon is this very exciting, it’s been created by the investment that the company has made over the past period to develop and actually deliver a company that has sustained future earnings in an industry that was renowned for its short-term approach.
Based on our South African expansion, and very excitingly in the immediate future is the copper delivery, it’s when we finally start showing the market our ability to take low grade copper wastes and turn that into copper cathode, at significant quantities.
That’s the immediate future for the company over the next period, which is a very exciting time for us to enter into while of course, at the same time, we are busy with the design and implementation of yet the next phase of our copper growth in Zambia.
So, a lot of things to look forward to, but in the short to medium term, very much so focused on that first significant copper step up in Zambia.
