Reef mining and stockpiling at platinum-mining and exploration company Platmin’s Pilanesberg project, situated about 60 km north-west of Rustenburg on the platinum-hotbed Bushveld Complex, will begin in September, Platmin COO Terry Holohan tells Mining Weekly.
Plant commissioning for the Pilanesberg project is scheduled for January next year, and will be followed by the start of production in the first quarter of 2009.
“We expect to produce our first concentrate in March 2009 for despatch to our custom smelter, Northam Platinum,” states Holohan.
Platmin expects to mine about 65 000 t/m of upper group two (UG2) ore at the opencast Pilanesberg mine.
The company expects a combined bulk mine of 352 000 t/m of the silica package, which is a combination of Merensky reef and pseudo reef, explains Holohan.
The overall strip ratio will be 6,5:1 in the Tuschenkomst pit, which Platmin wiaggregates equipment bivi tec costll operate for the first ten years of the life-of-mine for Pilanesberg.
The company will then move to the Ruighoek pit, which will operate from the ninth year to the thirteenth year of the operation.
“This combined package will, at steady state, return 250 000 oz of three platinum-group elements plus gold, for 13 years, in concentrate a year. We will operate two flotation plants, one for UG2 and the other for the silica package,” states Holohan.
Capex
Holohan reports that the project construction capital is estimated by the bankable feasibility study to be R1,6-billion.</mining crushers problem solving techniquesp>
Holohan says that the highest cash draw, prior to breakeven, is at R2,65-billion, and this is based on the assumption that the platinum price trades at $951 an ounce.
“With the platinum-group metal prices today, we believe this project to be robust which, given the bankable feasibility study, is justified at a platinum price of $951/oz,” states Holohan.
He adds that the company should be in the lowest 10% of cash producers as the reefs start on surface.
Platmin has spent R450-million on the project to date and, at this stage, with over 90% of the capital committed, the project remainportable crushing plant photo gallerys on budget.
Current Activity
Plant design and mining project management firm DRA is currently building the concentrator plant as part of its engineering, procurement, construction and mining contract, reports Platmin.
Holohan mentions that opencast contract mining company MCC mined over one-million tons of overburden in July.
“The tonnage was removed from the first pit on the Tuschen-komst property; they are now opening up two further boxcuts to give us flexibility,” he adds.
The major equipment items, including crushers and flotation cells, were bolted into place30 20 primary jaw crusher india at the beginning of this month, and the project is about 52% complete, reports Holohan.
“The critical path on the pro- ject has always been the mills, which we ordered from three different countries, namely China, Australia and South Africa,” he says.
Platmin ordered the mills and transformers from State-owned power utility Eskom in early 2007, before the bankable feasibility study, says Holohan
He says, as a result, there are about 450 personnel on site, and this number will peak to 1 500 later in the year.
Platmin’s adult basic education and training facility, which is the company’s first building project, is currently unmanganese crusher surveysder construction and will be used primarily for the community and for entry-level employee training.
Challenges
Holohan says that Platmin faces similar challenges to all mining projects currently under way in South Africa, and these include skills and power shortages.
He says, however, that the company has been able to mitigate these concerns by employing a number of strategies, including employing key engineers.
“We have employed engineers with good records in projects of this type within our ranks to assist all the supply fabricators with their respective delivery schedules, which, in our experience, is the critical path in construction today,” comments Holohan.
He adds that the company has managed to secure its power allocation from Eskom in 2007 prior to the debilitating power interruptions on January 24, 2008.
“As a result, we are also working closely with Eskom to ensure that we meet our deadlines of permanent power available in November 2008,” states Holohan.
Platmin secured its 37 MVA power requirements in November of 2007 from Eskom, which subsequently provided 1,5 MVA of temporary power for the Pilanes- berg construction activity.
“This will be sufficient to operate the two milling circuits, with the openpit not requiring power,” mentions Holohan.