Green light for Platreef

The much-anticipated Platreef Project promises to breathe new life into the local economy. The mining right authorises Ivanplats to mine and process platinum-group metals, nickel, copper, gold, silver, cobalt, iron, vanadium and chrome at its Platreef discovery, outside Mokopane on the Northern Limb of the Bushveld Complex.
The department of mineral resources (DMR) originally granted Ivanplats its mining rights on May 30 with formal activation of the right remaining subject to the satisfaction of a number of conditions intended to ensure that the mining operation would meaningfully contribute toward to socio-economic development of the area in an environmentally sustainable manner.
“The final regulatory approval of the
Platreef Project’s mining right is significant not only for the development of the project itself but it also signals the SA government’s determination to grow our country’s economy. The Platreef Project will attract foreign capital, create much-needed jobs and contribute significantly to socio-economic development in areas surrounding the project,” says Minister Ramatlhodi.
Platreef Project director, Gerick Mouton, told Northern News that whilst the sample shaft (now called Shaft 1) had started under the prospecting right at the mine site before operations were halted at the end of May, everything is now back on track to resume the development of the mine."We are committed to resuming site work as soon as is practically possible this month,” he explains.
Mouton also confirmed that plans to cut jobs in the area are no longer being consi-dered. The mine will be highly mechanised and therefore it will employ fewer people than a typical narrow-reef mine, but the employees will be highly-skilled with recruitment and training of locals being a top prio-rity. The company had already conducted a skills audit in conjunction with the department of labour and skills training will start in accordance with the company's social and labour plan.
The project has also attracted a lot of media attention due to issues surrounding its social, economic and black empowerment commitments. “The communities will stand to gain a great deal as our broad-based, black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) structure is one of the best models of its kind in the SA mining sector,” Mouton explained, adding that the mine plans to work closely with the DMR to ensure that the host communities receive maximum achievable benefits from the social and labour plans as well.
The B-BBEE structure sees the local  host communities, employees and entrepreneurs owning a combined 26% of the Platreef project. An estimated 150 000 people live in the 20 communities that form part of the B-BBEE structure.
“This mine will contribute significantly to job creation, skills training, local economic development projects and enterprise development opportunities within the Mokopane- and surrounding areas,” says Mouton. “The project will benefit the local people.”
During a meeting with the Mokopane Chamber of Business earlier this year, Mouton made mention of the possibility of Ivanplats contributing to a bulk water project that would see a pipeline construction from Flag Boshielo dam, which would supply Mokopane, the communities and the local mines with water. Last week Mouton confirmed that while no agreement had yet been reached, Ivanplats was in ongoing discussions with the department of water affairs and sanitation.

About the Platreef Project
Driving past the proposed underground Platreef mine only head gear and minimal structures will be visible on the surface.
The Platreef Project is 64%-owned by Ivanhoe and 10%-owned by a Japanese consortium of Itochu Corporation; ITC Platinum, an Itochu affiliate; Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation; and Japan Gas Corporation. The Japanese consortium’s 10% interest in the Platreef Project was acquired in two tranches for a total investment of $290 million.
The remaining 26% ownership interest is held by Ivanplats B-BBEE partners (host communities, employees and local entrepreneurs).
The Project includes the underground Flatreef deposit of thick, platinum-group elements, nickel, copper and gold mineralization in the Northern Limb of the Bushveld Complex, outside Mokopane.
The Flatreef deposit, discovered in 2012 within the Platreef Discovery, is on average a true thickness of 24m compared to the 1m reef found in the Rustenburg area. The reef, which outcrops on the surface, dips down. This ‘down-dip’ is challenging and expensive to mine. But then the reef flattens out and forms a ‘flatreef’. The Indicated Mineral Resource grade at equivalent 2.0 g/t 3PE+Au cut-off is 4.1 g/t 3PE+Au, 0.34$ nickel and 0.17% copper. Flatreef's indicated mineral resources of 214 Mt contain an estimated 28.5 million ounces of platinum, palladium and rhodium, 1.6 billion pounds of nickel and 0.8 billion pounds of copper.
 The thick flatreef is amendable to large-scale, mechanised underground mining.
“Three run-of-mine production scenarios were examined: 4 million tons per year (Mtpa); a base case of 8Mtba; and 12Mtba. Phase 1 would include the construction of four vertical shafts, a concentrator and other associated infrastructure to establish an operating platform to support the start of production at a nominal plant capacity of 4 Mtpa by 2020,” says Mouton.
An annual production target  of 785 000 ounces of platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold has been set (at an expanded operating scenario of 12Mtpa, the annual production target would be 1.1 million ounces of platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold (3PE + Au)).
Platreef, with the highest concentration of base metals among Africa's platinum-group metals producers, would rank at the bottom of the cash-cost curve, at an estimated $341 per ounce of 3PE + Au, net of by-products.