Eastern Platinum Limited (Eastplats) has advanced the commissioning activities of its platinum group metals (PGM) processing plant at its Crocodile River mine in the Bushveld Complex in northeastern South Africa and has commenced run-of-mine ore processing from underground operations.
CEO and President Wanjin Yang said commissioning of the processing plant (Circuit B) is ongoing, and the plant has begun processing from the Zandfontein underground operations. A total of 75,000 tons of ROM ore was blasted up to October 1, with approximately 22,000 tons of the ROM ore processed in September.
“This produced a concentrate containing approximately 1,300 ounces of PGM (Pt, Pd, Rh, Ru, Ir, Au) 6E metals, which was delivered to Impala under the existing offtake agreement between the company’s subsidiary, Barplats Mines and Impala. [Some] 30,000 tons of ROM ore is expected to be processed in October, producing concentrates containing 2,000 to 2,500 ounces of PGM 6E metals to be delivered to Impala. Metallurgical chrome concentrates have been produced as a by-product when the UG2 ROM ore is being processed for PGMs,” the company added.
Underground operations from Zandfontein will produce 40,000 tons of ROM ore per month by the end of 2024, as previously guided. The next ramp-up phase will increase production to 70,000 tons of ROM ore per month by the end of 2025. Eastplats’ Circuit B has a ROM ore processing capacity of 1,000,000 tons annually. Up to 185,000 tons of underground ROM ore from Zandfontein is expected to be blasted and processed in 2024.
“This operational milestone marks our transition from a tailings storage facility chrome recovery operation to a growing PGM concentrate and metallurgical chrome concentrate producer, and we look forward to reporting PGM and metallurgical chrome revenues from the Zandfontein underground section as ROM ore tonnages ramp up,” Yang said.
Processing of historical tailings to recover chrome from its chrome retreatment project will continue at Crocodile River, but Eastplats said that should wind down in the early part of 2025.
Following the conclusion of this project, Eastplats expects to complete the second phase of its tailings storage facility program to recover chrome and PGMs from tailings generated from the newly operating Zandfontein underground. By 2026, PGM revenue is expected to account for 65% or more of Eastplats’ total revenue.
Source: Eastern Platinum