Further furnace troubles add to Lonmin platinum sales delay

LONDON, Dec (Shanghai: 600875.SS - news) 31 (Reuters) - Lonmin (LSE: LMI.L - news) , the world's third-largest platinum producer, said on Wednesday it had stopped a second furnace at its South African plant following a technical problem, compounding production problems at the facility.

Lonmin, which is listed on both the London and the Johannesburg Stock Exchanges, was forced to halt its number one furnace in early December for around three months in order to fix a leak.

The company said that as a result of the maintenance work it expected its borrowings at the end of March 2015 would increase, but that they were likely within the firm's set borrowing facilities.

The outage of its number two furnace to address electrode breaks was not expected to exceed 21 days, Lonmin said, adding that work on its number one furnace was progressing as planned.

The bulk of the company's sales are expected to take place in the second half of its financial year, ending Sept. 30, but Lonmin said its sales guidance for the year remained unchanged.

(Reporting by Karolin Schaps, Editing by Paul Sandle)