Anglo American Platinum (Amplats)’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) was R74 billion in 2022, a 32%  drop when compared to R108 billion in 2021.

It said that the impact of lower prices reduced EBITDA by R14.3 billion, coupled with the inflationary impact of the consumer price index of R3.2 billion.

This, said Amplats, was partially offset by lower royalties of R13.9 billion and a weaker rand/dollar exchange rate.

It also registered a mining EBITDA margin of 57%.

“This financial year has seen us navigate a complex operating environment, with macro-economic challenges, supply chain disruptions, socio-economic unrest and electricity load-curtailment, as well as some operational headwinds of our own,” said Amplats outgoing chief executive Natascha Viljoen.

“However, we have seen good levels of resilience across our operations and a strong response from our team across our operations, working through these challenges to deliver our mined production, refined production and sales numbers for the year.”

Amplats said the price of the PGM basket remained the second-highest average on record in 2022 of $2,551 (R41, 453) per PGM ounce after reaching record highs in 2021.

 Palladium reached a record high in the first quarter of 2022 due to supply concerns following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, while both palladium and rhodium traded in line with changing automotive production, which increased by 7% in 2022.

The price of platinum increased through 2022, after being negatively affected by a higher dollar price for much of the year.

Meanwhile, Amplats said that its total platinum group metals (PGM) production (comprising platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium, ruthenium and gold) decreased by 6% to 4 million ounces in 2022, mainly due to lower grade at Mogalakwena and the impact of planned infrastructure closures at Amandelbult, partially offset by increased production from Mototolo and Unki.

It said that the total production of PGM from own mined operations (comprising Mogalakwena, Amandelbult, Mototolo, Unki and the 50% share of Kroondal and Modikwa) decreased by 7% to 2,6 million PGM ounces.

A delay in the completion of the rebuild of the Polokwane smelter due to substandard materials, as well as Eskom load-shedding, resulted in total refined production of 3.8 million PGM ounces, with sales in line with refined production, it said.