Sibanye recovers after weather woes

The company’s Century zinc reprocessing operation was the hardest hit by the weather, but the site is now enjoying an “improved outlook” as the worst of the weather passes by.

“The rain related downtime allowed for the completion of substantial opportune maintenance works, and the reduction of work required in one of the two annual shutdowns, which was safely completed in March,” Sibanye-Stillwater said.

“This has set the operations up well for the comparatively drier months of April through October, where all efforts will be made to catch-up on payable zinc metal production.

“Sustaining capital expenditure for the quarter was also less than expected at $US1 million ($1.5 million). With the recent increase in the zinc price and significantly lower spot treatment charges, the outlook for the Century zinc tailings retreatment operation is positive for the remainder of the year.”

Sibanye-Stillwater said the company is encouraged by improving safety trends for the quarter as it continues its journey to zero harm.

“Our fatal elimination strategy puts an emphasis on leading indicators and critical life saving behaviours, rather than lagging or historical measures,” the miner said. “We continue to encourage a bottom-up approach to safety, empowering our entire workforce to take responsibility for safety.

“We encourage crews and frontline supervisors to stop work immediately should conditions be unsafe and we are dedicated to embedding an operational safety culture that enables our teams to work to standards and to stop any unsafe work without hesitation.”