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Gold/Mining/Energy : Mining News of Note -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LoneClone who wrote (34769)	3/27/2009 2:48:07 PM
From: LoneClone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 194042

Ridge Mining posts 24% profit increase miningweekly.com By: Chanel Pringle 26th March 2009 JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Despite the difficult trading environment that started facing the platinum sector at the end of 2008, Aim-listed Ridge Mining on Thursday posted a net profit of $16,6-million for the year ended December 31, 2008, up 24% from the $13,4-million achieved in 2007. “In an exceptionally difficult year for all our management and staff, I would like to pay tribute to their outstanding performance in conditions of quite appalling economic and financial turmoil,” CEO Terence Wilkinson told shareholders in a statement. He said that considerable progress had been made with the preparations to commission the Blue Ridge project, in which Ridge Mining held a 50% stake, and which had faced some delays, during the December Christmas break. Consequently, the commissioning could only take place in January. The mine was on schedule to reach steady-state of 120 000 t/m of ore processed by the third quarter of the year. Further, the Blue Ridge joint-venture project had unwound its hedge book in February, recording a profit of R541-million. This allowed the company to repay the majority of the project debt with a mezzanine loan facility in place. “We are currently in the process of arranging additional debt facilities to fund the previously announced R400-million in additional working capital necessitated by the delay and we expect to make a further announcement shortly,” said Wilkinson. Meanwhile, a feasibility study for the Sheba’s Ridge project, in which Ridge Mining held a 30% stake, was completed during 2008, indicated that the project was economically viable at forecast long-term platinum group metals prices.