Eastern Platinum (Eastplats) is advancing commissioning activities of the platinum group metals (PGM) processing plant at its flagship Crocodile River Mine (CRM), located within the Bushveld Complex, host to approximately 80% of the world’s PGM-bearing ore, in north eastern South Africa.
The plant, it said, has begun processing run-of-mine (ROM) UG2 ore from the Zandfontein underground operations at the CRM.
Zandfontein's underground operations will produce 40,000 tonnes of ROM ore per month by the end of 2024, while the next ramp-up phase will increase production to 70,000 tonnes of ROM ore per month by the end of 2025.
“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,” said company president and chief executive Wanjin Yang.
Eastplats said it will continue to process historical tailings to recover chrome from its chrome retreatment project, at the CRM, but expects this to wind down in the early part of 2025.
The company expects to complete the second phase of its tailings storage facility programme to recover chrome and PGMs from tailings generated from the newly operating Zandfontein underground.
It said PGM revenue is expected to account for 65% or more of Eastplats’ total revenue by 2026.
Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief, Rough&Polished
