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With the global macroeconomic environment remaining challenging, Sibanye-Stillwater is continuing to assess the positioning of its operations for optimal performance and sustainability through the cycle, CEO Neal Froneman said on Thursday when the company provided a third-quarter operational update.

"Our financial position remains robust and our capital allocation framework remains the guiding principle for growth and diversification opportunities aligned with our strategy," Froneman highlighted.

"We have maintained our capital discipline in anticipation of weaker market conditions, as highlighted in February 2022. We remain prudent with capital investment and utilising our balance sheet to fund external growth during this challenging period.

"We are conscious of the necessity of appropriately managing debt, mindful of our leverage position during periods of decreasing, or volatile, profitability and earnings," Froneman added in a release to Mining Weekly.

After a difficult start to the third quarter, with three tragic fatalities recorded in the first five weeks, the remainder of the three months to the end of September was fatality-free.

Noted was that the gains in safety performance indicators since 2021 had been maintained, with the other lagging indicators generally stable year-on-year.

The platinum group metals (PGMs), gold and green metals company is looking forward to ongoing safety improvements over the remainder of the year, with an intense focus on ending the year without any high-impact incidents.

Sibanye reiterated its mindfulness of the commercial environment as well as its intention, where necessary, to consider restructuring in areas where commercially viable operations cannot be sustained.

In this regard, potential restructuring at the South African gold and the South African PGM operations was announced.

"Potential closure or rightsizing of high-cost and underperforming shafts will ensure that operations remain profitable and sustainable at current precious metal prices and beyond, while retaining significant leverage to improvements in the commodity price outlook," said Froneman.

Although the US PGM operations were repositioned in mid-2022 in anticipation of the changing macro environment and worsening medium-term outlook for the palladium price, the decline in the palladium price during 2023 has surpassed expectations, dropping lower and faster than anticipated.

While the mine production volume run rate at the US PGM operations improved during October, persistent inflation and the continued impact of skills shortages, have resulted in costs remaining significantly higher than planned. Further repositioning is being considered to address these factors which have kept costs at elevated levels.

As guided, the third-quarter operational performances of the Sandouville nickel refinery in France and the Century zinc retreatment operation in Australia improved, with both operations recovering from first-half disruptions. This improved operational performance resulted in the Century operation contributing positively to third-quarter group adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda), a turnaround from adjusted Ebitda losses in the second quarter.

But despite the improved third-quarter operational performance, the Sandouville refinery remained loss-making, owing to continued inflationary cost pressures, elevated maintenance costs and a further decline in the average nickel price.

The current operations are not commercially viable at current nickel prices, and management has made notable progress with optimisation studies aimed at securing a sustainable future for the Sandouville refinery.

"Positively, during these optimisation studies, the European region and Sandouville teams have identified an innovative alternative to the current process and are currently assessing its commercial and technical fea...