Presenter:Growing demand for coal has helped Petmin deliver an impressive set of interim results. Its share price climbed more than 2% on a day when resources fell 4%. The minerals, mining and processing company has reported a 120% jump in headline earnings per share for the six months to the end of December last year. Revenue is up 92% to R306-million last year and profit after tax has also surged, rising 145% to R93-million. Petmin ramped up the production and sales of anthracite at its Somkhele mine. 85% of the sales were for overseas markets. But Petmin, like many other mining groups, has been affected by the power crisis. There was a negative impact on anthracite production, which may result in the delay of two shipments until after the end of the June reporting period. It said earlier today, that should local demand for its products fall, any surplus will be exported, thanks to voracious global demand.
Bradley Doig:Our coal is mainly used in the metallurgical smelting process and there’s been a global demand for good quality metallurgical coal and we’ve seen that over the last six months. There’s been a dramatic increase in prices. In addition to that we’ve obviously increased our overall production and we’ve managed our cost base pretty well.
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