Anglo Platinum Chief Executive Neville Nicolau believes the company will achieve better platinum output than expected this year.

The world's largest producer of the precious metal originally predicted that it will be able to achieve output of 2.5 million ounces in 2010.

However, Mr Nicolau revealed in an interview with Reuters than it now intends to "slightly" surpass that target, with further guidance likely in the firm's mid-year report.

"We have had as a strategy for some time now to introduce some flexibility in terms of production, which means that we would like to be able to ramp up our production and ramp it down … when the market requires this," he told the news provider.

Mr Nicolau revealed that he expects the platinum market to be at a small deficit in 2010 and for Anglo to keep its production costs at about R11,000 per oz through 2011.

In addition, he claimed that Anglo is actively attempting to reduce its exposure to South Africa's power issues and is working closely with state utility Eskom to achieve this goal.

"Internally we are looking at actually reducing our power consumption by modifying our process to be less reliant on electricity," he told Reuters.

The majority of Anglo Platinum's operations take place on the platinum-rich Bushveld Complex in South Africa.

Source:

Angloplat sees 2010 output above forecast (17/05/10)

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