Iofina hits production record as third plant begins production

20th Nov 2013 12:44

Iofina has announced its third production plant, IO#3 in Oklahoma, has begun producing iodine after its recent regulatory approval, although construction delays hit its fourth and fifth plants The AIM-listed company also announced that it had recently set a new monthly production record in October due to increased brine streams at its nearby IO#2 plant and continuing production improvements at IO#1.Chief Executive Officer George Lantz, who was appointed in September after his predecessor resigned for healthy reasons, said: "Record iodine production coupled with production commencing at the state of the art IO#3 facility is an exciting achievement for the team. We look forward to steadily increasing production as additional plants continue to come on line."Construction has continued on IO#4 and IO#5, although delivery times for some equipment being shipped from Ukraine have been extended and this will cause the expected completion timeframe to be extended into the first quarter of 2014. The delays were 'understandable' said broker Investec, which has not changed its forecasts, which were already more conservative than Iofina's plans. Shares in Iofina were up 1.5% to 67.5p at 12:57 on Wednesday. OH