South Africa-focused Aquarius Platinum has reported a three per cent fall in first quarter production.

Output in the three months to the end of September slipped to 109,828 platinum group metal ounces, the world's fourth biggest primary platinum producer said.

Excluding Blueridge, for which no data was provided, the fall was even bigger - eight per cent.

Production at Kroondal and Marikana were adversely affected by manual installation of hanging wall support, the firm explained.

Meanwhile, its Everest mine has been hampered by continuing poor ground conditions and section 54 stoppages, as well as industrial action by workers employed by contractor Murray & Roberts.

Aquarius chief executive officer Stuart Murray said the first quarter of the 2012 financial year was "a truly difficult one".

Operational issues faced the preceding quarter "continued to pose challenges", he noted, adding that they were "exacerbated by further primary mining contractor underperformance".

Aquarius will take a more "interventionist" approach with its contractor, Mr Murray said.

There were positives to take from the quarter, however, with Aquarius reaching an agreement with its partners at Kroondal and Marikana to exploit the Siphumelele 3 ore reserves.

"Mimosa returned an outstanding performance, lowering costs while continuing to produce at capacity," Mr Murray added.

Production at Mimosa slipped three per cent from 27,803 oz in Q4 2011 to 26,899 oz this quarter. Year-on-year, the fall was just one per cent.

Kroondal, the firm's main operation, was almost unchanged from last quarter at 44,454 oz, though this was a 20 per cent drop from the same period last year.

Production at Marikana actually rose 21 per cent from the preceding quarter to 12,996 oz, which was up six per cent on 2010.

Everest slipped 14 per cent to 23,074 oz from last quarter, though remains 13 per cent up on last year. Output at CTRP and Platinum Mile was also down from the previous quarter.

"The tailings operations continued to suffer from feedstock quality issues, impacting costs through their very high fixed cost base," noted Mr Murray.

Sources:

UPDATE 1-Aquarius Platinum swings to quarterly net loss (27/10/11)

Aquarius Platinum Limited Financial and Production Results to 30 September 2011 (27/10/11)

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