In this edition of Ghost Bites:

• Jubilee Metals is successfully through its maintenance shutdown
• Some bright spots at Old Mutual, but still sideways overalls
• Wesizwe Platinum announces job losses at Bakubung Minerals

Jubilee Metals is successfully through its maintenance shutdown (JSE: JBL)

There must be an audible sigh of relief at junior miners when these processes go well

Jubilee Metals has released an operational update on the Roan concentrator. This is a critical part of their value chain, as Roan processes third-party run-of-mine copper ore into copper concentrates for further processing at the Sable refinery. Roan also produces high-grade sulphide concentrate for direct sale into the market.

The most recent major step at Roan was the commissioning of the expanded copper concentrate dewatering circuit. They then moved into an annual maintenance shutdown in May 2026. This was successful, as operations have been resumed at full capacity.

Jubilee also took advantage of the maintenance period to make improvements to the copper oxide flotation circuit. This should improve copper recoveries and partially offset inflationary pressures in fuel and chemical costs. Interestingly, acid consumption and transport costs contribute approximately 20% and 16% of monthly expenses respectively.

Ghost Bite: Despite copper being such a global focus area, Jubilee’s share price is down 38% in the past year. I don’t have the technical skillset to get involved in junior mining stocks, but that does seem odd.

Some bright spots at Old Mutual, but still sideways overall (JSE: OMU)

The bank remains an enigma for me

Old Mutual has released a voluntary operating update for the quarter ended March 2026. The “results from operations” number of R2.5 billion represents a pretty flat performance. The group has also noted that shareholder investment returns were significantly lower in this quarter due to market volatility.

So, not a fantastic outcome at group level, but what if we dig deeper?

Life APE sales were up by an impressive 28%, but there’s lumpiness in this number that needs to be considered. Excluding one large risk deal in Old Mutual Corporate, the growth rate was 15%. Still, that’s a strong number, with Old Mutual highlighting positive momentum across most of its clusters.

Old Mutual Investments has enjoyed “exceptional flows” according to the announcement. They are putting a lot of effort into marketing that business.

At Old Mutual group level though, there were net client cash outflows of R3.2 billion (better than the outflow of R5.4 billion in the prior period, but still a concern).

In terms of margin, it’s good to see value of new business margin up at 1.6% (vs. 1.2% previously). The aforementioned large risk deal was a positive contributor here, as was the margin improvement in the Wealth Management business. Old Mutual has cautioned that the margin will normalise over the remainder of the year.

On the insurance side, Old Mutual Insure reported a strong net underwriting margin that was ahead of the medium-term range of 5% to 8%. Gross written premiums were up 4% in this business. Alongside the strong margins, this bodes well for the financial performance.

Gross loans and advances were up by just 1% year-on-year, so Old Mutual has plenty of work to do in deploying assets. They are busy integrating Old Mutual Finance and OM Bank, with lending activities at the bank expected to launch in the second half of the year. I still don’t understand what their key differentiator is, especially since we already have a green bank!

To be fair, one of their strategic priorities is to “establish the right to win for OM Bank”, so at least we are talking the same language here. I just don’t see what that right to win will be. Thanks to existing products being migrated into the bank, they have 473,000 customers. The real test is whether they can cross-sell transactional products into a base of money market and savings account customers.

The balance sheet is in good shape, with the regulatory solvency ratio within the target range. This means that Old Mutual had no problems in executing a R3 billion share buyback.

Ghost Bite: Old Mutual’s share price has been under pressure this year, down 14% since the start of 2026. On a mid-single digit P/E, the market clearly doesn’t believe that Old Mutual is capable of meaningful growth. It’s up to the company to prove the market wrong!

Wesizwe Platinum announces job losses at Bakubung Minerals (JSE: WEZ)

Nearly 500 jobs will be affected

Wesizwe Platinum announced that Bakubung Minerals will be entering into a s189 process to restructure its operations. When you see the term “s189”, you know that some people are going to lose their jobs.

Sure enough, with the company moving from a 1 Mtpa production strategy to a 3.5 Mtpa operation, they need to pursue a single-stage ramp-up. That might sound like more jobs would be needed, but it’s quite the opposite.

To reduce expenses and sustain the numbers in their business plan, Bakubung’s restructure will affect 497 employees out of the total headcount of 706 employees.

As a precaution during the process, Bakubung will implement a temporary operational shutdown for three weeks in June.

Ghost Bite: I’ve had a front-row seat to a retrenchment process in a corporate and I can tell you that it isn’t fun. Given the history of our mining sector in South Africa, the stakes are even higher here. I don’t envy anyone involved in this process.

Results of previous poll:

Nibbles:

• Director dealings:
  • The company secretary of AVI (JSE: AVI) received share options and sold the whole lot worth R2.6 million.
  • Adrian Saville was recently appointed to the board of 4Sight Holdings (JSE: 4SI), bringing plenty of experience and a strong reputation to the company. He’s now thrown some money behind it as well, buying shares worth R248k. If you’re keen to learn more about this company, check out the recent Unlock the Stock webinar with management here.
  • An entity associated with Africa Bitcoin Corporation (JSE: BAC) CEO Warren Wheatley bought ordinary shares in the company worth R25k.

• Nictus (JSE: NCS) is one of the more obscure names on the JSE, with a market cap of just R150 million. This furniture and financial services business has released a trading statement dealing with the year ended March 2026. HEPS is up by between 74.28% and 94.28%, a rather incredible jump! Detailed results are due at the end of June.

• There’s finally a changing of the guard at Combined Motor Holdings (JSE: CMH). You’ll struggle to find a board anywhere on the JSE with this many directors who have been there for so long. Having been appointed to the board in 1986 (two years before I was born!), Stuart Jackson is now retiring as CFO. He will remain a director and will be available to assist newly appointed CFO Priya Govind. Govind was appointed to the board in June 2025 as CFO-designate.

• Orion Minerals (JSE: ORN) has completed the raise of $15.4 million (around R181 million). They even managed to pay an advisor in shares instead of cash, so that’s a further boost. There’s all to play for now, with the share price up 73% in the past 12 months as the market has felt more confident about the company’s ability to raise funding and develop its projects.

• Good news for shareholders in Deneb (JSE: DNB): the sale of the Deneb House property in Observatory for R120 million has been approved by the Competition Commission. The deal is now unconditional, with transfer expected by the end of July 2026.

• Aimia (JSE: AII) is ready to get going on its share buyback programme, or its “normal course issuer bid” as per the fancy terminology on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX). There are a bunch of other interesting rules actually, like a maximum daily limit of 25% of average daily trade. In addition, Aimia can execute one block purchase per week.

• Copper 360 (JSE: CPR) has announced the appointment of Malande Tonjeni as independent director and chair of the audit and risk committee. Beverly Bouwer has been appointed as lead independent director. This company has so much work to do. They nee to repair their image with investors who have watched the share price collapse.

• Sebata Holdings (JSE: SEB) released a trading statement dealing with the year ended March 2025. HEPS swung wildly from a loss of 102.20 cents to a profit of between 90.66 cents and 110.66 cents. And no, your eyes are not deceiving you – they really are this far behind on their financial reporting. That’s why the stock is suspended from trading.