Tharisa PLC (LSE:THS, JSE:THA) has received a share price upgrade from the mining team at Berenberg after the South African platinum and chrome miner extended the life of its mine to 2041.
“The Tharisa mine is a long-life open-pit operation,” says the broker.
“Having spent a number of years fine-tuning mining activities, operational performance is smooth and now that the Vulcan fine chrome recovery plant is online, the company can transition to being a 2mtpa chrome concentrate and 200koz pa (6E) PGM producer for the long term.
“In addition to this, the company has a range of growth options that we think will become more of a feature in the story, with the assets in Zimbabwe likely to take centre stage, offering lower capital-intensive open-pittable PGM production.
“Aside from this, we think the company’s focus on downstream beneficiation could, over time, remove the current c15% discount that it takes on sale of its PGMs to refiners.”
Buy remains Berenberg’s rating though the target price rises to 190p from 180p.