* Cuts 2012 spend; 2013 and 2014 capex drops to $250 million
* Sticks to 2012 sales, cost targets
* Signals major review of investment, growth strategy
* Shares climb on capex cuts
(Adds details, South African background)
By Clara Ferreira-Marques
LONDON, July 26 (Reuters) – Platinum miner Lonmin
has slashed spending plans up to 2014, holding back a push to
ramp up key shafts in order to preserve cash as it warned poor
demand and weak prices battering the sector could persist for
longer than expected.
Platinum miners – focused in South Africa, home to some 80
percent of reserves – have since 2008 been facing growing margin
pressure from so aring costs, increasingly militant unions a nd,
s ince last year, government-imposed sa f ety stoppages. A
lacklustre European economy has also weighed on demand for the
precious metal, used mainly in auto catalysts and jewellery.
Lonmin, the third-largest platinum miner, said on Thursday
it had trimmed 2012 spending by $20 million to $430 million, but
cut its plans for its 2013 and 2014 financial years to just $250
million – little more than that necessary to sustain operations
– as it deferred investment in its Hossy, K4 and Saffy shafts.
It had hoped to ramp up those key growth shafts swiftly, to
bring down the overall cost of producing an ounce of metal.
Continued…
