Feb 28 (Reuters) - Diversified miner Sibanye Stillwater on Tuesday reported a 49% decline in full-year profit after a lengthy strike at its South African gold mines and flooding at its U.S platinum operations hit production.
Its headline earnings per share (HEPS) - the main profit measure in South Africa - fell to 6.52 rand ($0.3537) for the year ended Dec.31 from 12.72 rand a year earlier.
A three-month strike over wages at Sibanye's South African gold operations during the second quarter of 2022 cut the miner's gold production by 50%.
A seven-week work stoppage caused by floods at Sibanye's Montana, U.S., platinum group metal (PGM) operations resulted in a 26% decline in output to 421,133 ounces. PGM production from Sibanye's South African operations was 1.73 million ounces in 2022, down nearly 9% from the previous year, because of power cuts, safety stoppages and cable theft.
Sibanye declared a final dividend of 1.22 rand per share, bringing the total dividend for the year to 2.60 rand per share, returning 7.37 billion rand ($400.02 million) to shareholders during the year.
