Jubilee Platinum PLC (LON:JLP) saw revenues from chromite sales more than double in the third quarter, while it also moved closer to another acquisition.
The increased revenues came from the group's Dilokong Chrome mine tailings project in South Africa.
Chromite concentrate output was up around 88% compared with the preceding quarter to 28,559 tons, which led to revenues of £2.09mln.
Earnings attributable to the firm rose 95% against the second quarter to £0.89mln.
Leon Coetzer, chief executive, said: "The operating results are very satisfactory and show increasing performance quarter on quarter which is reflected in our financial performance."
He added that Jubilee continued to pursue projects in a bid to increase its cash flow.
"We are confident that we will shortly conclude a further acquisition with discussions progressing favourably in other areas of acquisition and joint venture."
Meanwhile, construction of the 660,000 tons a year platinum and chromite processing plant for tailings from Hernic’s ferrochrome operation continues to progress on schedule.
Jubilee comes a long way
The bullish update highlights how far Jubilee has progressed over the years.
Time was not too long ago that its fortunes were tied solely to the Tjate platinum project in the South African Bushveld – a good looking property with a healthy resource, but deep.
The thinking was that one of the major players in the Bushveld would eventually mine close enough to want to take it out.
It was a sound enough idea, but didn’t take into account the five year-plus bear market in platinum prices that got underway towards the end of the last decade.
But Jubilee is run by seasoned entrepreneurs.
Chairman Colin Bird cut the deal that brought the chief executive Leon Coetzer on the acquisition of a specialist platinum group metals and chrome processing business back in 2009.
The idea at the time was to create a mine-to-market platinum junior working along the same lines as the majors and cutting out the need for refining, smelting and processing charges at any level.
Later on, the company took a further step towards realising this strategy when it acquired a smelter at Middelburg.
Markets remained tough though, and there came a need for the company to cut its cloth accordingly.
Middelburg was sold, the aspiration for Jubilee to mine on its own account set aside while poor platinum prices prevailed and the full focus went towards securing cashflow.
To that end, the company signed processing agreements over the tailings dumps at ASA Metals’ Dilokong chrome mine back in 2014 and set about developing a plan to commercialise them.
The share price, at the current 3.77p is now more than double where it was since before Dilokong was acquired.
Hernic bigger than Dilokong
The Hernic project, an operation designed and planned on similar lines to the one at Dilokong, will be another source of cashflow.
Hernic Ferrochrome is the world’s 4th largest ferrochrome producer and as such has built up considerable waste and tailings over the years.
Jubilee has already spent £6.2 mln on constructing a facility that will be able to process 55,000 tonnes per month, taking total processing capacity up to around 900,000 tonnes per year.
Commissioning is expected in December this year and looks set to be a major dial shifter for the former miner.