JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Platinum group metals (PGMs) company Northam Platinum on Friday declared a record interim cash dividend of R2.8-billion from income reserves.

For the six months ended December 31, the board of directors of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed company has resolved to declare and pay 700c per share, an all-time high interim gross cash dividend, which reflects the current strong price buoyancy within the PGMs mining space.

Mining Weekly can report that earlier this month, the PGMs miner, headed by CEO Paul Dunne, successfully concluded and implemented an agreement to increase its existing revolving credit facility (RCF) from R11.3-billion to R13.3-billion to support its renewable-energy rollout.

Northam’s total available banking facilities now amount to R14.3-billion, comprising the increased RCF of R13.3-billion, which matures in August 2027, and existing general banking facilities of R1-billion.

As a large and growing energy user, Northam has been pursuing an alternative and renewable-energy programme to improve security and diversity of energy supply, while simultaneously reducing long-term energy costs and the company’s impact on the environment.

To date, it has entered into various power purchase agreements with independent power producers for new renewable-energy projects, which are in advanced construction phases, with some already producing renewable energy.

Northam is also developing various own-build and owned renewable-energy projects at the company’s mine sites, comprising solar PV plants supplemented with utility-scale battery storage.

The RCF increase allows Northam to accelerate construction of these various own-build projects.

Northam’s alternative energy programme is scheduled to provide more than 70% of the company’s total energy requirement from renewable sources before the end of the current decade, with a concomitant significant reduction in its carbon emissions and increase in energy availability factor on a competitive cost basis.

Northam’s three main operations in South Africa are Zondereinde, in Limpopo; Booysendal, in Mpumalanga; and Eland, in North West.

“The RCF increase provides Northam with the necessary flexibility and additional capacity to accelerate our efforts to enhance the security of our energy supply through the use of renewable sources and to also significantly decrease our contribution towards greenhouse-gas emissions, without affecting our other capital programmes or our ability to return value to shareholders whilst doing so,” Northam CFO Alet Coetzee reported.