International Ferro Metals (IFL), a South African producer of ferrochrome, has announced its operational results for two major projects, namely, its Sky Chrome mine in South Africa and its cogeneration facility at its existing ferrochrome smelting complex in North West Province in South Africa, for the first two months of the fiscal year 2012-13 (July-August 2012).
Accordingly, International Ferro Metals' Sky Chrome mine ramped up production to a record 73,000 mt for August. The company said that Sky Chrome mine now fully compensates the closure of the Lesedi open pit mine, which reached end of life in July this year. Meanwhile, the Lesedi underground mine produced 14,000 mt run-of-mine during August. IFL reported that its furnaces performed better than expected during July and August, producing 39,700 mt of ferrochrome.
IFL noted that its cogeneration facility continued to improve and achieved a record production of 5.5GWh in July, or 6.9 percent of the company's total power demand. In August, it hit a new record of 8.1GWh. This equates to 10.2 percent of total power demand. IFL said that it expects to continue at that level while moving towards its 11 percent target when all engines are running at full capacity.