JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – TSX- and Aim-listed platinum producer Platmin will start trading  on the JSE on July 22.

The Canadian junior miner reported on Wednesday that the JSE had granted it a secondary listing, by way of share placement. Platmin would be listed under the share code PLN.

Meanwhile, Platmin said that the processing plant of its flagship Pilanesberg mine, in South Africa, was likely to be fully commissioned by the third quarter of 2010.

The company had also revised the Pilanesberg mine’s cost to R2,7-billion. The total estimated capital expenditure value determined during the bankable feasibility study of the project was R1,67-billion.

As at the end of May, total expenditure on the project amounted to R2,33-billion.

The Pilanesberg platinum group element (PGE) project constitutes an opencast mining operation and a metallurgical processing and concentrator plant, which would produce a PGE concentrate for further processing by a third party.

Construction on the Pilanesberg processing plant started in October of 2007, and was scheduled for completion during the second quarter of 2010.

The overall design of the processing plant was based on processing more than five-million tons a year of reef ore and producing 250 000 oz 3PGE and gold, on a yearly basis.

Platmin reported that the overall plant construction project was ahead of schedule at 98% complete at the end of May.

The company also said that its Mphahlele and Grootboom projects had been placed reduced work programme to focus its cash resources on bringing the Pilanesberg project into full production.

“Platmin will commit sufficient expenditure to these projects to ensure that the new order prospecting and mining rights are preserved. These expenditures will be funded from existing cash on hand and where necessary, additional funding will be raised to fund future exploration and development expenditure.”

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