Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) will still receive concentrate and deliver metal to customers despite the closure of a unit of its Anglo Converter Plant (ACP) last week when a water leak was detected, the company said on Wednesday.
The Johannesburg-listed miner, one of the world's largest platinum producers, last week closed the Phase B unit at the ACP processing and refining plant after detecting a water leak in the high-pressure cooling section.
"[Amplats] will continue to receive concentrate from third parties and joint ventures ... and will continue to deliver metal to customers," the miner said in a statement without providing further detail.
Amplats said that repair work on the single cooler tube at the unit, part of a chain of processing facilities, would be completed next week with no impact expected on full-year refined production guidance of between 3.1 million and 3.6 million platinum group metal (PGM) ounces.
The company last month completed repairs to the Phase B unit in Rustenburg, North West Province, after a blast shut processing facilities and it declared force majeure to suppliers of concentrate.
The repairs enabled the lifting of the force majeure, though repairs to the Phase A unit are not expected to be complete until the latter part of 2020.
The damage to the processing facilities forced Amplats to cut its production outlook in March.
(Reporting by Tanisha Heiberg; Editing by David Goodman)
