Sibanye Stillwater
South Africa-based Sibanye Stillwater Ltd. (NYSE: SBSW) mines precious metals, primarily gold and platinum group metals (PGM) in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Canada, Argentina and Montana. The company’s South African gold operations have been targeted since March by miners striking for a monthly pay increase of $12.62. About 30,000 people work at the three mines affected by the strikes. Negotiations have been ongoing and a meeting was scheduled for Thursday.
In Montana, Sibanye Stillwater operates the only platinum mine and platinum recycling operation in the United States. While gold prices have been down about 4% over the course of a year, platinum prices have fallen by nearly 22%.
The company’s March-quarter operations update reported gold production had fallen by nearly half, both sequentially and year over year. The average gold price was about 5.5% higher, but all-in sustaining costs rose by almost 50%. PGM production was about 4% lower sequentially and more than 20% lower year over year. The average basket price for PGMs was down about 17% year over year and all-in costs were essentially flat.
Sibanye Stillwater pays a dividend yield of 9.22%. Daily trading volume is around 3.8 million shares, and the company’s payout ratio is about 55%. Free cash flow for the past 12 months totaled $2.36 billion.
BHP
Australia-based BHP Group Ltd. (NYSE: BHP) is the world’s third-largest iron ore miner and among the globe’s top producers of copper and coal as well. BHP produced about 370,000 tonnes of copper in the March quarter and about 60 million metric tons of iron ore. Copper production was up 1% sequentially and iron ore production down 10%. BHP’s metallurgical coal production rose by 20.6 million tonnes (up 20%) and thermal coal production rose by 13% to 2.6 million tonnes
BHP is expecting the sale of its petroleum business to Australia’s Woodside Petroleum to be completed on June 1. The sale marks the end of BHP’s extraction of oil and gas. The company expects its 2022 fiscal year (ending in June) copper production to fall into a range of 1.57 million tonnes to 1.62 million tonnes. Iron ore production is tabbed at 249 million to 259 million tonnes.
BHP’s dividend yield is 10.39%, and the company’s payout ratio is nearly 90%. About 4.7 million shares are traded on an average day. BHP’s free cash flow for the past year is about $24.1 billion.
Southern Copper
Southern Copper Corp. (NYSE: SCCO) produces copper and molybdenum from mines in Peru, Mexico, Argentina, Ecuador and Chile. It is the world’s fifth-largest producer, trailing Chile’s Codelco, BHP, Freeport-McMoRan and Glencore. In 2020 the company produced more than 1 million tonnes of copper.
In the first quarter of this year, Southern sold nearly 208 million tons of copper, down 13.4% year over year. Sales of silver declined by 16.8% to 4.4 million ounces. The company’s average selling price for copper was around $4.54 per pound (up 17.6% year over year), while silver fetched an average of $24.05 per ounce (down 8.5% year over year).
Southern pays a dividend yield of 6.43%, and the payout ratio is 72.8%. Shares are fairly lightly traded, with about 1.1 million changing hands on average every day. The company’s free cash flow for the past four quarters totaled $3.47 billion.
Originally posted at 24/7 Wall St.
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