South Africa’s lockdown initiatives to contain COVID-19’s spread impacted Afarak’s ferroalloy mining and production in Q1 2020.
The company reported its consolidated group production, consisting of mining and specialty alloys and ferroalloys processing, fell by 42.6pc in Q1 2020 to 76,405mt from 133,217mt in the same quarter last year.
The decline in ferroalloys output impacted the company’s consolidated production figures. The miner attributed this decline to no mining activity at its Mecklenburg mine, and significantly lower mining activity at its Stellite mine, after the company got permission from the South African government to continue production in the latter.
Afarak reportedly produced 49,237mt of ferroalloys in Q1 2020, down by 54.7pc from 108,778mt during the same quarter last year. The miner’s specialty alloys production rose by 11.2pc to 27,168mt in the first quarter this year from 24,439mt in Q1 2019.
It also reported a 10.7pc increase in efficiencies at its Turkish mines, which have continue operating on schedule.