Even amid the Covid-19 pandemic and global economic turbulence, companies are allocating capital to expansion projects. Kumba Iron Ore, a unit of Anglo American, has announced approval of funding for its R7-billion Kapstevel South project at the Kolomela mine in the Northern Cape province. This underscores Anglo's commitment to South Africa.
Kumba Iron Ore made the announcement on Tuesday, 28 July along with its interim results, which reflected a decent performance, given the challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic.
"Kumba's operational performance for the period reflects the lockdown and subsequent reopening of operations in Q2 2020 with reduced workforce levels of approximately 50%, before ramping up production to pre-Covid-19 run-rates in June [2020]. Consequently, total tonnes mined for the period decreased by 15% to 117.6 Mt," the company said.
Headline earnings declined 16% to R8.4-billion and the board declared an interim cash dividend of R19.60 per share, representing 75% of headline earnings. The company ended the period with net cash of R15.7-billion.
This puts the company, which has been delivering fat dividends to shareholders under its affable CEO Themba Mkhwanazi, in a strong position in the face of a turbulent period, enabling it to expand.
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