q & a for john lewins

I sent an email to John Lewins on the morning after the Dow had its big drop.

7/05/10
Dear John,

I am a shareholder and would appreciate it if you would take the time to clarify a couple of questions I have, I would like to post your responses on Hotcopper website and hopefully provide some positive news on what is likely to be a very unpleasant day on the ASX.

My questions relate to a recent news article that appeared on themininingweekly.com, link attached, http://www.miningweekly.com/article/smokey-hills-output-plunges-54-reports-platinum-australia-2010-04-30 .

1.You were reported as saying that Platinum Australia expected the mine to reach its full employee complement by the end of April has that occurred? .
Is this unprotected industrial disruption behind us now?

2.It was also mentioned in the article that said you expected production for this quarter to be between 15 - 17,000ozs, I note that this has since been removed from the article, is this no longer the expected production? If not what is? Since there are shareholders that have seen this article and the figures have been published and attributed to you, if you could clarify the situation it would be appreciated.

3.Finally in the article it states that the changes to the mine design to compensate for the effects of the pot hole were expected to be implemented by June, as June is only three weeks away could you please confirm that this will be the case that the changes to the mine design will be completed by the end of the month.
I know that you are busy and I dont want to take up much of your time so a yes or no answer is fine by me, an estimated figure of production or completion date of the repairs would be great would help put concerns to rest.

Kind regards
Newport22

11/05/10
Dear Newport,

Thanks for the email and apologies for the delay in responding as I only got back into the office yesterday after a couple of weeks over in South Africa. Obviously I can only provide information which is in the market.

The underground mine did reach its full employee complement by the end of April.

We have not given any updated expected production figures for the June Quarter, however the strike and other issues in the last quarter have obviously affected our planned build up. I believe that Goldman Sachs JBWere has estimated that our production for this financial year will be ~42,000 ozs 4E, which would require production this quarter of ~13,000 ozs 4E.

The statement that we expect the changes to the mine design to compensate for the effects of the pot hole to be implemented by June remains correct.

We will be issuing our production advice for the next financial year in due course. We have however previously stated that we expect the underground production to reach design in the September Quarter and this is still expected to be the case.

I trust this helps. My apologies again for the delay in response and also for the lack of detail, but I am constrained as to what I can say as I am sure you are aware.

Regards,

John Lewins
Managing Director
Platinum Australia Limited

Tel :+618 9324 1491
Cell:+61 419 910 061