Johannesburg - South African mining group Sibanye Gold warned on Thursday that headline earnings per share for the year to end-December could plunge more than 20 percent to 136 cents, as expected gold production falls 4-6 percent after output was lost earlier in the year due to labour disruptions over wage negotiations.
Sibanye said in a statement that it expected year earnings per share to fall to 149 cents and gold production for the year would be 47-48 tons.
“Despite the solid and continuing operational recovery after the March 2015 quarter, particularly at Beatrix and Cooke, various operational disruptions and distractions related to the on-going wage negotiations have continued to impede a full recovery at Kloof, and to a lesser extent, Driefontein,” Sibanye Chief Executive Neal Froneman said in a statement.
“Operating trends continued to improve during the September 2015 quarter, but even with a further forecast improvement for the December 2015 quarter, it is unlikely that we will claw back production that was lost during the March 2015 quarter,” he said.
The mining firm - which said earlier this month it is buying Aquarius Platinum for almost $300 million in cash and last month announced it was buying Anglo American Platinum’s Rustenburg operations for at least R4.5 billion - said operating profit for the quarter to end-September fell to R1.59 billion from R1.78 billion a year ago.
Sibanye said that at forecast production levels, total cash cost would be between R350 000/kg and R360 000/kg.
ANA