Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Tharisa plc Investor Presentation. Throughout this recorded presentation, investors will be in listen-only mode. Questions are encouraged. They can be submitted at any time via the Q&A tab that's just situated on the right-hand corner of your screen. Please just simply type in your questions and press Send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question it receives during the meeting itself. The company will review all questions submitted today and publish responses where it's appropriate to do so, and these will be available via your Investor Meet Company dashboard. Before we begin, if I may just submit the following poll, if you could give that your kind attention, I'm sure the company would be most grateful. I would now like to hand you over to CEO, Phoevos Pouroulis. Good morning, sir.
Good morning, and thank you everyone for joining us today for our interim results presentation for the six months ended 31 March 2023. I think before I kick off, you know, our purpose statement is to enrich lives through innovating the resources company of the future. I really do believe that we have a balanced approach in achieving this goal. These six months that we'll report on, I think are a point in case, are highlighting the resilience of our business, our team, and the focus that we have on delivering our stated strategy.
When we stood back and reflected on our business over the last decade, and the challenges that we've navigated and the opportunities that we've been able to seize and unlock value, we have sort of framed our business as being profitable, investing, paying dividends, and delivering on our Vision 2025. When we look at our profitability, we've been profitable since 2015. In a cyclical market as commodities are, this is quite a major achievement. This really is borne out by the co-product business model that we have with these multi commodities delivering into different demand sectors and different cycles. Once again, this business model has proven its value and resilience. Importantly, not only have we been driving our business to generate free cash, we've also been investing in the business over the last decade.
To that end, most people haven't quantified the scale of investment, which comes to $550 million. Really what this has allowed us to do is to ensure that we maximize, the return and the extraction, the recovery of the metals that we mine through innovative processes, through unconventional thinking, and really looking at first principles and extracting maximum value. Coupled with being profitable and investing in our business, we've been able to return value to shareholders in the form of dividends. We've returned over $90 million in cash to shareholders, when we include the dividend that we proposed and approved, in fact, at this interim period. It's really talks to our commitment and our discipline in terms of returning cash to shareholders.
This all while paying over $202 million in corporate debt during the same period. Really a cash generative engine that's allowing us to grow our business, invest in it, share in those cash flows with our shareholders while maintaining an active balance sheet and enabling us to grow. Where do we see ourselves in 2025, is unlocking this multi-generational mineral endowment. We have over 60 million tons in multi jurisdictions, multi mine, multi commodities within our control. It's ultimately unlocking value within these resource bases. Beyond that, looking at value, unlocking or unlocking value through innovation. If we reflect on the last six months, we believe that we've navigated uncertainty successfully. What supported us during this period? Our co-product business model has proven its resilience again.
The chrome market has been extremely buoyant, and we're seeing very high spot prices at the moment of $300 per ton, average for the half of $247 per ton. While PGM prices have softened, the chrome market has really rallied in essence, and we're able to take advantage of that being a large producer of that. We have what we believe, countercyclical commodities in our basket, and we've seen that with rhodium when rhodium prices rallied. You know, people were calling us a rhodium mine. People call us a chrome mine or a platinum mine. We have the benefit of being able to produce these metals into these different demand cycles. Importantly, the fundamentals are still robust across the basket of the commodities we produce. Macro factors supporting our business during this period.
We've seen the rand weaken significantly to the dollar. This offsets some of the inflationary pressure. While we are a predominantly U.S. dollar-denominated business, the majority of our costs in South Africa are rand-based, so we do get that benefit. We've seen bulk freight rates normalize from the peak pricing that we saw in the prior financial year, almost $10 straight through to the bottom line saving from the comparable period. What's really been encouraging coming out of Platinum Week and following general policy, global policy is the momentum behind the hydrogen economy, and this truly benefits our PGM basket, and particularly platinum, ruthenium, and iridium.
When we look east, we see the Chinese stainless steel outlook is positive and really post the COVID lockdowns, we're starting to see that late cycle commodity moving in a positive trajectory, putting pressure on raw material supply, and we'll unpack that when we look at Chinese port stocks. I think the real theme for this past six months and going into the second half of our financial year is supply side pressures. There's no doubt that the headwinds that are unpacked now are putting pressure on supply chain, primary supply extraction. When we look at the, in particular, the South African context of electricity, our current requirements at the Tharisa Mine are some 27 MW.
The main energy source for us is diesel, hence us being an open pit mine and benefiting from that competitive cost structure. We did install standby diesel generators to manage load curtailment or load shedding as it's known for domestic users. We're able to withstand up to the equivalent of load shedding level six with our standby generators without impacting operations significantly. With anything beyond that, our dual processing plant set up allows us the flexibility to manage electricity curtailments and shocks, whereby we'd shut down certain parts of our process without impacting materially the flow of product through the processing plants.
I think what's encouraging and very pleased to report on is that our environmental approval for the 40 MW solar project has been granted, and that paves the way for us to deliver on that project, which will allow us to offset daylight operations from the grid. Something significant for us. We're anticipating having that project completed in the second half of next year. In terms of transport, this has been well reported on, the rail infrastructure has many challenges, primarily with sabotage and theft of cables and rail infrastructure. What that has meant is that most producers and ourselves included, have had to adapt to moving from 80% rail allocation to now 85% road allocation.
This has also necessitated and created the opportunity for us to export not only out of South African ports, but out of Maputo in Mozambique as well. We look at the macroeconomic factors, the geopolitical issues with the Ukraine invasion and war, inflation and interest rates increasing. In-environment is uncertain and certainly increase in inflation and interest rates, putting pressure on supply chain, on consumption of goods globally. That certainly has an impact on demand. In South Africa, crime, corruption, a major concern and factor that one has to navigate and manage. We have reported previously that our first half was impacted by unprecedented rainfall, which did create certain bottlenecks and challenges in the open pit.
If we just move on to the highlights now, safety is a core value of ours, and I'm pleased to report that our safety statistics have improved over the last 200,000 man-hours worked to 0.27 incidents. Unfortunately, we did have the fatality in October last year. It was a big shock to everybody, and we reinstalled safety as a core value, and really through strong leadership have we turned that trajectory around. Pleasing to report that Karo Platinum remains project free and LTI free at the project, and that's since 2018, so a significant milestone there. When reflecting on the fatality and the lives lost within the broader Tharisa family, we erected a memorial garden at the Tharisa Mine.
It's a famous sculptor, Anton Smit, a bronze statue called Faith. I think the Helen Keller quote is very apt in challenging environments, which states that, "Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into the light." This was very well-received by our colleagues, friends, and family. Moving on to the highlights. We control significant resources, I think you know that old adage that he who has the resources king really holds true in an environment where there's a scarcity of resources that are becoming more capital-intensive and more challenging to mine. We are privileged to be in this position. In terms of our mining, it was down due to those weather challenges and delay in waste stripping at 2.1 million tons.
PGM production for the half at 77,000 ounces at an average PGM basket price of $2,216 per ounce. Chrome production, just shy of 788,000 tons, at a metallurgical grade chrome price of $247 per ton. Karo Platinum, again, controls a significant resource, and bearing in mind, this is merely phase one at 152.1 million tons. We're targeting for this phase one steady-state operations an additional 190,000 ounces of PGM production. When we look at our four pillars of discovering, developing, delivering, diversifying, we're very pleased that we perform in each one of these pillars. We're delivering healthy margins and strong cash flows despite these operational headwinds. We're developing the Karo Platinum project and construction is progressing well and funding advancing, as planned.
In terms of diversification, we are in the process of commercializing a number of our research and development projects, and very exciting, and we'll share that with the market. In terms of capital discipline, again, a core value of ours, we spent $49.3 million on CapEx, ending up with a net cash positive position of $112.7 million. Very pleased to report back to our shareholders the interim dividend of $0.03 per share, which exceeds our policy of 15% distributed of net profit after tax.
In terms of our guidance for the full year, this is the revised guidance, a range of 158,000 to 167,000 ounces of PGMs on a 6E basis, and similarly, 1.58 million tons to 1.67 million tons of chrome concentrate. When we look further north to Karo Platinum, some of the construction milestones, the earthworks are primarily complete or materially complete. First concrete is to be poured in June. That's the civil contractor that's been appointed. We have elected to commence with a trial open pit mine, and that will also commence in June and will be completed by September of this year. This really will give us in situ on the ground experience in terms of mining the Main Sulphide Zone on an open pit basis on the Dyke.
We will commence with mechanical construction in September of this year as well. When we look at the snapshot here of the highlights, we really do believe that we've been delivering value in a challenging environment. We often forget the impact that our operations have on our employees and the broader community, and it's quite a sobering thought to consider that 4,600 people's lives are dependent on the operations that we control. This includes group employees and contractors. If we consider the multiplier effect of 10 to one in Southern Africa, you know, 45 odd 1,000 people are impacted by the activities in a positive way that the employment that we've created at Tharisa and Karo over the years.
We have 440 employees and contractors on site in Zimbabwe . You can see that ramp up progressing well and in line with our timelines. Importantly, we have a strong female representation of greater than 25% in our employees. Pleased to report that there have been no lost days to industrial action. We are nearing the end of our four-year wage agreement with our unions, and that has been a very healthy and sound relationship. We have various employee forums and engagements, and our HR team has really adapted to the current challenges and environment and embarks on roadshows.
This is coupled with our education and wellness programs whereby we offer adult education training and skills development to our own employees, but also to the communities within which we operate. We support the local schools. We donated an IT center. We maintain that for them, give them connectivity as well as basic needs, shoes, stationery, outfits, supporting their football teams and so forth. Really entrenched in the communities. In terms of enterprise development initiatives, we support small, medium enterprises and we look at upskilling. The wellness program has been around for a long time and it's really important to provide support and it's called Tushenang, helping each other and the wellness facilitators are really entrenched within the employees and the community.
Moving to the environment now, we have committed to reducing our footprint by 30%, that's our carbon footprint, by 2030, and achieving carbon net neutrality by 2050. I spoke about the 40 MW solar plant, which goes a long way to achieving some of those carbon reductions. But we're also looking at new technologies, e-fuels, biofuels, to replace diesel in the future, as well as electric or hydrogen fuel cell drivetrains for our vehicles. Also, pleased to report that the first 30 MW solar plant in Zimbabwe, coupled to the first phase of Karo, has been initiated and progress has been made. As reported, the production numbers for the first half have yielded the following financial metrics.
Revenue slightly up at $335.3 million for the half really on the back of those strong chrome prices. Operating profit down to $63.5 million. EBITDA at $81.2 million. Profit before tax, $72.4 million. Net cash from operating activities at $97.1 million, resulting in cash and cash equivalents of $205.7 million. Michael will unpack these numbers for you in more detail. This resulting in an earnings per share of $0.174, and a headline earnings per share of $0.176. Again, Michael will explain the differences between the two. This allowing us then to declare a $0.03 interim dividend.
In spite of the challenges, still generating healthy margins, in our business. As mentioned, PGM basket price for the half, $2,216 per ounce, and metallurgical grade chrome prices at $247 per ounce. When we look at our Vision 2025: Enriching Lives through Innovating the Resources Company of the Future, it's really built on the six pillars of expansion, which is really expanding and rolling out our business sustainably. Using optimization in our existing operations, the Vulcan plant being a perfect point in case, yielding more out of every cube of rock that we mine, and then utilizing innovation to constantly invest in that process technology, but also downstream, opportunities in terms of new applications.
Diversification is key to us, looking at not only the multi-commodity suite, but also jurisdiction multi-mine strategy, which is consistent with our intent from 2014 when we first listed. When we look at investment, we do want to become the investment of choice. We certainly believe there's a huge value proposition, and there's such a disconnect between where we currently trade and what the true value of our business is. We believe there's great opportunity there and, you know, delivering on our plans, I think certainly will give confidence in our ability to become the investment of choice. Importantly, re-enriching lives, but responsibly, and this is for all stakeholders involved in the ecosystem.
I've touched on the long-life portfolio, I think this often is taken for granted. You know, we've got a multi-generational resource base here. We can produce at the volumes that we produce at and grow from these two significant resources in Karo, in Zimbabwe and Tharisa. You know, whether you see them as 60 years or beyond, it's still meaningful in terms of the mineral endowment. We have at the Tharisa Mine for the full extent of the mine, some 40.3 million ounces of contained PGMs. At Karo, just for the first phase, we have 10 million ounces. We know historically, 96 million ounces have been declared over the concession, the 23,900 hectare concession.
In terms of pure chrome metal, 171.1 million tons. These are strategic long-life assets, and we're able to unlock value through our pit-to-port strategy because we control our resources, we control our ability to produce and then manage the export successfully, primarily of our chrome concentrates to end users at final destinations. We maximize the value across the chain, whether it be mining, processing, trading, logistics, but also beneficiation to come in the future. This product diversity has really given us the opportunity to reinvest and to grow while returning cash to shareholders. We'll touch on the ethos of innovation. We certainly believe that technology is the key enabler for differentiation.
We can't compete with our balance sheet with the major producers, but we can compete with applying unconventional thinking to a conventional industry. We've reported on historically our 1 MW PGM smelter, which is running commercially. We're selling that alloy, albeit on a small scale, but it has formed the basis for our front-end engineering design for our full-scale PGM smelting complex, which is busy being completed as we speak now. That is the study. At the facility, Arxo Metals, we are demonstrating various technologies and other initiatives, whether it be in the chrome or the PGM space. A very exciting site that we have operating in Brits in South Africa. We've also launched our Arxo Metals Technology Development Centre.
This is in collaboration with various institutions. We run laboratory and pilot scale test work there, and it's really focusing on downstream beneficiation of our commodities. We're looking and testing actually currently certain unique processes on a pilot scale for these various beneficiation processes. Really the incubator for ideas and processes. Then we will be launching our renewables energy center. This is adjacent to the Tharisa Mine. It's land that we own, and we'll be trialing and testing various storage solutions. We have an in-house large scale, long duration storage solution, which hopefully we'll be launching in the next quarter.
A very exciting initiative as well as the solar photovoltaic project and other technologies that we'll be demonstrating at that site. Touching on the Karo project, really, this is our growth project, and it is a tier one asset. The first phase is targeting a potential 17 years open pit mine, producing 190,000 ounces of PGMs with significant base metal credits of copper, nickel, and even some cobalt. We're targeting first ore mill in July 2024. As reported on, we started our construction in December last year. Earthworks nearly complete, and trial open pit mining and first concrete in June of this year. From a safety perspective, very pleased with our performance as reported on.
We are IFC compliant in terms of our environmental approvals. To date, we've received ESI approvals for mining, processing, and the overhead power line. Everything in line and in time with expectation. I think what's key and what really cements the local impact is recruitment and employment. 99% of our recruitment is local, Zimbabwean workers and skilled labor. We're providing skills training and upliftment through the process, not only of the construction phase, but also being ready to operate when we go into operations early next year. TotalEnergies, as mentioned, are developing the 30 MW solar project for our first phase and potential to scale up as we grow that business.
The capital to first ore mill is some $391 million, and we've utilized multiple funding streams to fund the project to date. We were the first successful U.S. dollar bond listing on the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange. A great achievement and a credit to Michael and the team for getting that done. We raised a short of $37 million, and that's traded on that exchange. We partially leveraged our existing assets to the tune of $130 million. The team are progressing well in terms of the $260 million syndicated senior project finance facility. Moving on to the commodities. I did touch on it briefly, but really we have a complementary PGM basket pro split between South Africa and Zimbabwe.
You can see that on the right-hand side in the pie charts. South Africa obviously having a very favorable rhodium content on a 6E basis, just short of 10%, but platinum dominated. When you look at Karo, very nice gold credits at 8.3%, platinum at 42, palladium 39, and rhodium at 4.1%. On a group basis, when you combine it, a very favorable exposure to these key and critical elements that have decarbonized the planet today with tailpipe emission control, and will continue to do so into the future. Where are we today with the PGM market? It's generally agreed that we're heading into a record platinum deficit this year, and that's really on the back of supply side chain constraints as well as increased demand.
Palladium with supply constraints primarily out of Russia, also forecast to remain in a deficit. Rhodium, balanced market to deficit, depending on above-ground stocks that have been released and have had a negative impact on the price. We looking forward, we do believe there is some upside in terms of pricing. If we look at demand drivers, the new Tier 4 and Euro 7 emission standards are still coming, still to be enforced. That certainly will have an increased loading in the auto cats supporting more demand, coupled with supply chain, primary supply chain constraints. The hydrogen economy is real. It's happening, I know there's a lot of skeptics out there, if we look at the capital, we look at the policy, and we look at the technologies, they're all aligning.
Certainly, we see this as a multi-decade drive to energy independence for countries, for regions, to provide a green zero emission solution to decarbonize the planet. When we look at Zimbabwe and potential new supply coming on, we don't see it as additional supply, but more of a substitution to shortfall in supply coming out of South Africa. On the chrome front, port stocks have reached critically low levels of some reports reporting around 1.4 million tons. To put that into context, that is less than four weeks supply in terms of that major ferrochrome and stainless steel complex in China and Indonesia, who are our main terminal markets for our metallurgical grade. We are seeing record rand prices on the back of the weak rand, nearing almost ZAR 6,000 a ton.
What's key here, South Africa is the main supplier of chrome units to the world. We supply 80% of Chinese chrome needs, and our Tharisa Mine accounts for 10% of Chinese chrome demand. Looking forward, we still see support for strong prices in the second half, so very healthy margins. Importantly, we'll see our specialty chrome production increasing in the second half. We went through a spiral replacement program in the first half that is now complete, so we'll start normalizing. Those chemical and foundry grade products still command a premium over even these lofty chrome prices of $300 per ton. I would like to hand over now to Michael to run through the financial highlights.
Thank you, Phoevos, good morning to those who have joined us on the presentation this morning. Our results for the six months ended 31 March 2023 really reflect the challenges that our business has faced over this reporting period. However, our business model has again proven its resilience, with the robust co-production model and the favorable chrome prices, it has benefited our business. In addition, the low cost open pit mine has also resulted in strong cash flows being generated. If you look at our strong cash flow generation, our net cash flows from operations amount to $97.1 million for the year. It has also enabled us to continuously invest throughout the cycle, we've been able to adhere to our dividend policy of distributing at least 15% of consolidated profit after tax.
If you look on our ability to deliver on our growth strategy, we have put in place a number of new debt facilities over this period. We did the first of its kind, Victoria Falls Stock Exchange bond, and that is to part-fund the construction of the Karo Platinum project with total subscriptions of $36.8 million, of which $5 million of that was received post-reporting period in a tap issue. The tenure of that bond is a three-year bond, and the coupon is some 9.5%. We've also successfully concluded a $130 million debt facility with Société Générale and Absa Bank. As of 31 March , this facility is undrawn as we close out on the final conditions precedent.
In terms of the structure of that loan, $80 million of that is a term loan and $50 million is revolving credit facility. In terms of progressing with the funding of the Karo Platinum project, we have agreed a term sheet with Syndicate of Banks for a $260 million senior project finance facility. Most of this, or the bulk of it, associated with export-import credit finance facilities, and we look forward to successfully closing that transaction over the rest of this year. All of these have enabled us to be positioned for sustainable growth. Our investment for the future, we spent some CapEx of $49.3 million, and I'll break that down further in the presentation.
We have substantially de-leveraged the balance sheet with net cash of $112.7 million, again, positioning us to deliver on our growth strategy. We do have a multi-commodity revenue stream. Our revenue for the year totals $335.3 million. If you look at the breakdown or contributions with respect to commodities, and this is on an ex-FCA basis, now that we've taken out the cost of shipping and freight from chrome, which is a major cost component, we sell on a CIF basis. Chrome contributed 48% to our overall revenue and PGMs, 45.5%. Rhodium remained the star performer and notwithstanding that it had a price reduction over the period while contributing less than 10% of our overall prill split, its contribution to the revenue basket from PGMs was some 47%.
If we just look at some of the numbers, PGM sales totals 76.8000 ounces. The average price was $2,216 per ounce. On metallurgical grade chrome sales, 712.9000 tons at an average price of $247 per ton. We actively managed our costs throughout this period, there were inflationary pressure that we had to manage. As previously reported in our production results, cubes mined were down some 29.1% at 7.3 million cubes. It results in increase in the cost per cube mined because of the fixed cost that needs to be absorbed over the lower volumes, increasing by 22.4% at $10.4 per cube mined.
In parallel with that, reef tonnes mined were down 25.6% at 2.1 million tonnes, that translates its increase in our cost per reef tonne mined of 16.4% at $36 per tonne. If we look at the consolidated cash cost per tonne milled, that increased by 5.9%, moving up to $53.4 per tonne. One of the key benefits of this is, as an exporter in South Africa, the commodities are priced in USD. However, the cost base is principally in ZAR. If you look at the exchange rate over the period, there's a significant weakening of the exchange rate. It weakened 15.7%, averaging 17.7.
As a consequence of that, we benefited and it offsets certain of those inflationary pressures that the company faced during this period. We are a co-product producer of both platinum and chrome concentrates. If we were to look at ourselves as a platinum-only producer, and we take the credits of the other platinum group elements and the chrome concentrates, our all-in sustaining cost per platinum ounce sold is $288. If we look at the table, though, the second half or the first half of last year had a credit of $437, and this is really on the back of very strong rhodium prices, and the credits of those rhodium prices impacting favorably on our all-in cost per platinum ounce sold.
We recorded a gross profit of $93.6 million on a very healthy gross profit margin at 27.9%. I've touched on the benefits of the weakening rand. This indicates some of the inflationary pressures that we faced. Diesel, which comprised some 18% of our overall online cash costs, up 16.2%, and landside logistics up 8.9%. The landside logistics really increasing because of increase in diesel prices, and we added long-distance haul for the chrome as we successfully dispatching stock from Maputo harbor as well. We continue to have disciplined capital allocation. We have a policy of distributing at least 15% of consolidated net profit after tax. The board approved an interim dividend of $0.03 per share, which matches the comparable period, interim period dividend of $0.03.
This equates to 16.4% of our net profit after tax and a dividend yield of 6.2%. If we look at historically, since we've commenced the payment of dividends, we have had a consistent payment history and have effectively distributed some $91.6 million to shareholders over this eight -year period. If we look at the investing for our business, $49.3 million was spent on our total CapEx for the six-month period. Of this amount, $18.3 million related to Karo Platinum. If we look at the six months moving going forward, Tharisa, excluding Karo Platinum, is committed to spending $48.8 million.
If you look at Karo Platinum itself, where there's going to be significant capital spend, commitments as at 31 March amount to $60 million, and we are looking at spending a total of $160 million is budgeted to be actually spent as cash outflow over the balance of six months. If we have a look at how we've invested over the period, it's ensuring the sustainability and not only sustainability but the growth of business operations. We have spent some $530 million over the last period. We continue being positioned for strategic growth. If we have a look at our strong cash flow generation, how we've applied it to the three key pillars of capital allocation, we've de-leveraged the balance sheet, we've invested in existing operations and growth and continue to adhere to our dividend policy.
If you look at the table on the right, it shows the track record since 2016 of how we've allocated our capital to these key capital allocation metrics and ensured that we also return funds to shareholders while at the same time investing in the same sustainability of our business, as well as positioning ourselves to the deleveraging the balance sheet for this current growth phase. Just touching on the balance sheet, we still have an extremely robust balance sheet. We have $205.7 million of cash and cash equivalents on the balance sheet. Net cash flow generated from operations, $97.1 million, and net cash of $112.7 million. Our total debt amounts to $93 million, and the short-term portion of that is some $48.4 million.
I'd just like to touch on some of the graph details on the right-hand side. Asset-backed facilities, which are principally associated with the purchase of the yellow fleet, at the mine itself, some 38.9% of our overall funding. We did say put in place a bridge loan, which we've drawn down the amount to $40 million. That will be repaid out of the syndicated loan that we're busy closing out. That is a bulk of the short-term debt of $40 million out of the $48 million arising from the bridge loan. Then, of course, the bond issue, remembering that the group itself subscribed for $10 million of the overall bond, so there's an offset of that. I think very pleasing if we have a look at where the business is that we do have access to trade finance facilities.
We have typically utilized these facilities. On the back of the strong cash flow generation, as well as the very favorable chrome concentrate prices, as at 31 March, we have not availed ourselves of these facilities. To give some perspective to that, at 30 September, the amount was some $23 million. In addition to that, which is an off-balance sheet financing, we discounted certain of our receivables previously on the receivables from Impala related to the platinum group metals. That facility has now been fully unwound, effectively that was a repayment of some $33 million over the last period as well. Looking at some of the ratios just to demonstrate again the strength and robustness of the balance sheet. Our current ratio is currently sitting at 2.4 times.
Our net debt to EBITDA, a negative 1.4 and net debt to equity of 16.9%. Again, the strong cash flow generation, the deleveraging of the balance sheet, enabling us to undertake the expansion project going to Karo Platinum. I'd now like to hand back to Phoevos. Thank you.
Thank you, Michael. When we look at our business and we look at the value proposition, we share these comparative graphs with you, and we really do believe that our equity provides value and growth. The consensus target price from our brokers here in the U.K. is GBP 2.20 per share. Currently, we're trading at a 2.2 times price to earnings multiple. The industry average for PGM miners is around six times, so certainly a value gap there. When we look at our business in terms of its earnings capacity and ability to generate margins, we can see that we've been profitable since 2015. We're tracking from 2018 here.
Those EBITDA margins have been healthy, albeit with these headwinds at 24.2%, we should see that growing into the second half. Really illustrating the capacity of our business to generate earnings. When you look at a price to net asset value trading at 0.4 times, and this was obviously dated on the 10th of May, I think our share price has retreated since then, so may even be lower than that today. When we look at net asset value growth since 2016 being listed here in London, we've provided a compounded annual growth rate of 14.9%.
Some significant upside and certainly something we think needs focus and attention and potentially unlock a lot of value for supporters and investors in our stock. With that, I'd like to hand over now to the Q&A and back to the moderator for that session. Thank you.
Phoevos, Michael, that's great. Thank you very much, indeed for your presentation this morning. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions just by using the Q&A tab that's situated on the top right-hand corner of your screen. Just while the team take a few moments to review those questions that were submitted already, I would like to remind you that a recording of this presentation, along with a copy of the slides and the published Q&A, can be accessed via your investor dashboard. Phoevos, Michael, Ilya, we did receive a number of questions, throughout your presentation this morning. Thank you to all of those on the call for taking the time to submit their questions.
Perhaps, guys, if I may just hand back to you to respond to those questions where it's appropriate to do so, and then I'll pick up from you at the end. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Let me start off with some of the operational questions that we have here. Two of them relate to Vulcan, what is the current status of Vulcan? More importantly, we spoke about a contractor joining the company. Can you update the market on the contractor and where we are with that?
Yes. Thank you. I think both very valid questions. The bulk waste contractor has mobilized, and they have started operations in the open pit with bulk stripping of our waste to assist with the backlog. The first team is commissioned and operating. The second team, I think is going through induction as we speak now and should be mobilized in the next week or so. It's a four-team crew over a three-year period just to facilitate with the our bulk stripping in the open pit to make sure we have that flexibility. That's progressing well. We selected a contractor that could mobilize quickly in terms of people and equipment. Positive on that front.
In terms of Vulcan, we've started seeing the incremental improvements that we had planned in this last quarter, with some of the optimization and tweaking processes that were scheduled. You can see a slight improvement in chrome recovery, and that's really on the back of chrome recovery and production on the back of those Vulcan initiatives. We, I think I reported on previously that we see it as a journey over the next 12 months. It was 18 months when I reported on it to get closer to that nameplate capacity. Bearing in mind that we are producing very low-cost chrome tons there.
We relooked at the break-even numbers in light of the current prices and albeit that our production is lower, we'll still be achieving that financial milestone within the same timeframe as originally envisaged. All in all, successful project with lots of upside potential.
Thank you. Some questions coming through here, more on the macro side, which I know you addressed earlier in your headwinds and tailwinds, but it really is the challenges that you face in South Africa. Maybe explain how we deal with load shedding on the upside and the downstream issues. And then people are asking about the political environment in Zimbabwe and what it's like operating there, if you can elaborate on that.
I'll start with Zimbabwe first. On the ground in Zimbabwe, it's really a pleasure to work. We find it an enabling environment from the regional leadership to the Ministries of Finance and Mining. Certainly there's huge support for the Karo project, and it is one of the key investments that will create employment, sustainable employment, some 1,000 jobs when we include the mining contractor in those numbers. As reported on this, is a massive resource and has potential to scale. From a skills, from a commitment, from a work ethic point of view, we've been extremely impressed and encouraged and it's really been a great experience.
In terms of policy and the macropolitical environment, I think our biggest challenge is uncertainty, and the constant changing of parameters, and policy approvals and changes. What we have done is we've engaged a government. We have certain concessions and provisions within the Special Economic Zone which give us layers of protection, but we are finalizing the National Project Status and mining agreements with government, bearing in mind that government are our partners to embed and enshrine a policy around mining regulation and fiscal terms. All parties are aligned on this front, as the uncertainty and volatility does create some confusion. While we do have commitment, we need to record it and enshrine it in these agreements.
When we look at the contrast of South Africa and Zimbabwe, we see Zimbabwe moving in the right direction in terms of progressive enabling environment. South Africa, unfortunately, on the other hand, is creating a lot of challenges, not only for big business, but for civilians and domestic users of power. There's no doubt that load-shedding is value destructive to the South African economy, and is creating more unemployment in an environment where we need employment, 'cause small business enterprises can't manage their businesses on diesel generators because it's too expensive. We're in the fortunate position that we have an installed capacity and an installed base.
We invested in standby generation, and for fear of repeating myself, we can withstand up to level six equivalent load-shedding with our standby generations without our operations being impacted. Now, beyond that, we would need to start shutting down primary crushers. We have the two distinct processing plants, Voyager, Genesis. If we need to go release more power into the grid, we'd shut down the primary crusher of Genesis. If there was more requirement, we'd shut down the primary crushers of Voyager and run off crushed ore stockpiles. Now, if we sequence this right and correctly, there shouldn't be disruption to throughput.
However, you know, if we were to look at it in the cold light of day, to run off crushed ore stockpiles, we must probably got three to five days on Voyager and about a week on Genesis before impacting our throughput. Because we have the two plants, there is flexibility there. I think the bigger concern is around grid failure and complete blackouts, and that puts us into a different territory. We'd still be able to mine in the open pit, being it may need diesel power requirements for our yellow fleet, but processing would be impacted. We'd have to run certain components of our processing plant with diesel gensets. We're busy with updating our disaster management plan around power outages, and seeing how we manage and navigate that.
There may be some short-term investment in standby generation, additional generation. At this stage, we've managed to balance the equation well. I think a secondary impact is the supply chain coming into the mine and whether it's even employees getting to and from work because of load-shedding and delays with traffic issues. These are real factors that one has to consider, and then whether your spare parts service providers can operate in this environment then becomes a case of do we have enough critical spares? Are our stores well-equipped? We're speaking to our major suppliers with keeping additional stocks on site and consignment stocks so that we manage that supply chain better in let's call it unpredictable environment. I hope that's answered the question.
Michael, I don't know if you want to add anything.
No, I think it's very comprehensive.
Staying with Michael, I know this has caused some questions this week. Michael, can you explain the difference between EPS and EPS once again? I know we went through it in the presentation. Maybe go through the details.
Right. Thank you, Ilya. Earnings per share is typically your ordinary share profits or privileges to ordinary shareholders after taking off the minority shareholders divide by ordinary number of shares and issue, excluding treasury shares. From a JSE perspective, there's a requirement to also declare or disclose headline earnings per share. Headline earnings per share is supposed to take out the anomalous areas to give you a normalized operating profit for the business. Typically, you take out impairments and write-offs. Interesting in our particular case now, and it's strictly in compliance with the JSE requirements, is it was a fair value adjustment of some $9 million associated with the Generation Minerals option that they had. It's a reversal through the income statement. We took the charge last year, and that is still included in headline earnings per share.
It's really the Johannesburg Stock Exchange regulatory requirement that we comply with to disclose the two aspects. One is your on the face of it income statement, earnings per share, and the other one is a more normalized one, taking off abnormal items such as write-offs and impairments.
Thank you. There's a question here, I think more broadly for you, Phoevos, on strategy. What happens after phase one at Karo, and how does that all impact the dividend policy that the company has? Obviously, the company is spending quite a bit of capital at the moment. What will happen after phase one at Karo, and how will that affect the company's view on dividends?
If we look at the growth strategy in parallel with the Karo development, we've discussed the beneficiation sites, primarily the PGM smelting complex in South Africa. We would see investment well-supported by financial institutions in South Africa to capture that additional margin that we currently lose when we sell our PGMs in concentrate form. We need to look at that as a value accretive investment, also with a very healthy payback period. That most probably would exceed the commissioning of the Karo project. I think the question really talks about with the enhanced cash flows and cash generation, will we maintain the same policy?
Certainly, we'll maintain a dividend policy. We potentially could revisit the ratio or the payout percentage and consider maybe distributing more dividends in a balanced production environment. We are investing in growth, and we are investing in technology at a much smaller scale than Put it this way, in the Karo Phase 1 capital intensity. Yes, we'll continue to manage all three aspects of our capital discipline.
Thank you. Michael, just back to the Société Générale and Absa facility. Can you give some details, tenure, what rates are we looking at? How will you be managing this facility?
In terms of that particular facility, it comprises two components. There's a term loan of $80 million and revolving credit facility of $50 million. The tenure of that is 42 months. The interest rates are variable, it's your normal SOFR these days, plus between 350 and 425 basis points. There is an element of commodity hedging required on those facilities in terms of just platinum palladium. It's a rolling hedge over a 12-month period. That's really just to match through and de-risk on the capital repayment profile of that particular debt. Manage in the normal course. The cash flows it's raised at Tharisa Minerals level are very strong, and we'll repay that in the normal course over that period.
Thank you.
Anything else, Ilya?
Sorry, I'm just going through the questions here. There's one question here. We've spoken in the past around resettlement around the Tharisa Mine. I know that's a program that we extremely busy with. Can you give us a quick update, Phoevos, on that before we have to end the Q&A session?
Yeah. Thanks, Ilya. There's active engagement with the stakeholders and interested and effective parties. We've appointed internationally renowned advisor to undertake engagement on a formalized basis and conduct surveys and censuses within the communities. You know, we need to remind our shareholders and stakeholders that the communities are shareholders in our business through the community trust, so they benefit from the positive results that we generate in the form of dividend distribution. You'll recall last year that their equity in the Tharisa Mine was converted to PLC shares, so they have a direct exposure to the broader group. This really aligns our interests with the broader community.
This is a commitment, a lifelong commitment to upliftment, enriching the lives of the communities, and we need to do it in a systematic, responsible manner so that we manage this process appropriately and with the right care of duty, so we don't make hasty decisions that potentially create secondary issues. It's progressing, and we'll continue to give feedback, but engagement has been undertaken on a formalized basis.
Phoevos, Michael, Ilya, thank you very much indeed for being so generous with your time and addressing all of those questions that came in from investors this morning. If there are any further questions that do come through, we'll make these available to you immediately after the presentation has ended just for you to review to then add any additional responses of course, where it's appropriate to do so, and we'll publish all those responses out on the Investor Meet Company platform. Phoevos, perhaps before just really looking to redirect those on the call and to provide with their feedback, which I know is particularly important to yourself and the company, if I could please just ask you for a few closing comments to wrap up with, that'd be great.
Sure. Thank you. I think we've navigated these uncertain times successfully in the last six months. They've been not only headwinds with regards to the environment in South Africa, but also macro factors coupled with unprecedented weather challenges. Really proud of the team that have dug deep to deliver and shown resilience in the face of adversity. And it really talks to the foundation of our business being robust, a co-product cash generative business, which allows us to do the things that we're doing. I think someone mentioned to us yesterday, for a company our size, a midcap, albeit we're trading lower than where we should be from a market cap point of view, we do a lot more than our potential peers in this space.
When you look at our R&D initiatives, you look at our engagements across stakeholders, the fact that we've been a dividend payer for the last eight years and profitable accordingly, really talks to the robustness of this business. I think the takeaway for us, and the message we'd like to impart is that we are investing responsibly and wisely in all aspects of our business, and we are disciplined, and we're consistent with the messaging and the strategy. Really excited to deliver on these initiatives, primarily Karo, bringing that on stream. It gives us that multi-jurisdiction, multi-project advantage. I'd like to just end with thanking everyone for their time and attendance this morning.
Phoevos, that's great. Michael and Ilya as well, thank you once again for updating investors this morning. Could I please ask investors not to close this session, as you'll now be automatically redirected, for the opportunity to provide your feedback in order that the management team can better understand your views and expectations. This will only take a few moments to complete, but I'm sure will be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of Tharisa plc, we would like to thank you for attending today's presentation. That now concludes today's session, so good morning to you all.