TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – TSX- and Aim-listed Platmin has been given access to the full 37 MVA of electricity that it requested from South African utility Eskom, after the second phase of the power allocation for its Pilanesberg mine, on the western limb of the Bushveld Complex, was connected on Wednesday.

The first 15 MVA was connected in March, to allow the successful commissioning of the Upper Ground two metallurgical plant, and this plant has now been operating at its design tonnage capacity since the middle of April, Platmin said.

“With phase 2 and the 37 MVA allocation now being available, we are pleased to be able to start up the Merensky concentrator plant later this week,” said CEO Ian Watson.

“With this power allocation now secured, we can confidently continue to ramp up the metallurgical operations to their design capacity.”

The Merensky metallurgical plant comprises a dense-media separation (DMS) plant to upgrade the lower grade components of the run-of-mine ores, as well as a milling and flotation plant to treat a combination of DMS products and Merensky run-of-mine ores.

The stockpile of Merensky material in front of the plant currently stands at over 730 000 t, with the mining on track to meet steady state ore production in the third quarter, Watson said.

“This plant will be brought on line over the month of June, which is in line with our previous commissioning forecasts, and is expected to be operating at design tonnages of 352 000 t of ore per month within three months.”

The primary milling and flotation of Merensky ores is expected to get under way later this week and, once this section has stabilised, the DMS section will be brought on line, said COO Terry Holohan.

Platmin shares fell 6,5% on Thursday, to C$1,00 apiece by 15:46 in Toronto.

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