Name of the Project
Platreef project – platinum group metals (PGMs), nickel, copper and gold mine.

Location
The project is located on the northern limb of South Africa’s Bushveld Igneous Complex in Mokopane, Limpopo – the world’s premier platinum-producing region.

Project Owner/s
Ivanhoe Mines indirectly owns 64% of the Platreef project through its subsidiary, Ivanplats, and is directing all project development work. The South African beneficiaries of the approved, broad-based, black economic-empowerment (BBBEE) structure have a 26% stake in the project. The remaining 10% is owned by a Japanese consortium of Itochu Corporation, Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation and Japan Gas Corporation.

Ivanplats is one of the top performers in terms of compliance with South Africa’s BBBEE laws. The company achieved Level-2 status on the BBBEE scorecard in 2019.

The 20 communities surrounding the Platreef project are widely consulted. About 150 000 local residents have become equity shareholders, with an estimated 70% of employees and contractors being from the surrounding and directly affected communities.

Project Description
The Platreef project is a Tier-1 discovery, containing the underground Flatreef deposit of platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold (3PE+Au), nickel and copper.

Ivanplats has declared initial, probable mineral reserves of 17.6-million ounces of 3PE+Au – an increase of 13% following stope optimisation and mine sequencing work. The mineral reserve is expected to support a 32-year mine life at steady-state production of four-million tonnes a year.

Platreef’s Phase 1 startup plan – to process four-million tonnes of ore a year and produce 476 000 oz of 3PE+Au, plus 21-million pounds of nickel and 13-million pounds of copper – was the subject of an independent definitive feasibility study (DFS) completed in July 2017.

The proposed Phase 2 expansion will involve a doubling of mine production to eight-million tonnes a year, placing it among the world’s largest PGM mines.

Phase 3 will involve further mine expansion to a steady-state, 12-million tonnes a year, which would establish Platreef as the world’s largest primary PGM mine.

Key features of the Platreef DFS include:

• indicated mineral resources containing an estimated 41.9-million ounces of 3PE+Au, with additional inferred resources of 52.8-million ounces of 3PE+Au; and
• that the project will rank at the bottom of the cash-cost curve, at an estimated $351/oz of 3PE+Au produced, net of by-products and including sustaining capital costs, and $326/oz before sustaining capital costs.

Mining zones in the current Platreef mine plan occur at depths from about 700 m to 1 200 m below the surface. The main access to the Flatreef deposit and ventilation system is expected to be through five vertical shafts. Shaft 2 will host the main personnel transport cage, and the material and ore-handling system.

Shafts 1, 3, 4 and 5 will provide ventilation for the underground workings.

Shaft 1, currently under development, will also be used for initial access to the deposit and early underground development. Low-cost, mechanised mining methods will be incorporated, including longhole stoping and drift-and-fill mining. Mined-out areas will be backfilled using tailings from the processing plant and cement. The mine plan calls for the addition of large, mechanised mining equipment, including 14 t and 17 t load-haul-dump machines and 50 t haul trucks to support the planned longhole mining method.

The ore will be hauled from the stopes to a series of ore passes that will connect to a main haulage level at Shaft 2, from where it will be crushed and hoisted to the surface for processing. 

Shaft 2 will have a hoisting capacity of six-million tonnes a year.

The flowsheet for Phase 1 comprises a four-million-tonne-a-year, three-stage crushing circuit, which will feed into two parallel milling-flotation modules, each with a capacity of two-million tonnes a year. Flotation will be followed by a four-million-tonne-a-year tailings-handling and concentrate-thickening, filtration and storage circuit.

Potential Job Creation
About 2 000 permanent employees will be employed for Phase 1. In addition, several thousand indirect jobs are expected to be created.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
Phase 1 has an after-tax net present value of $916-million, at an 8% discount rate, and an after-tax internal rate of return of 14.2%.

Capital Expenditure
The estimated preproduction capital requirement for Phase 1 is about $1.5-billion.

Planned Start/End Date
According to the latest DFS, Phase 1 is expected to support initial concentrate production by 2022.

Latest Developments
Ivanplats is fast-tracking a feasibility study on a smaller-scale, early-stage development plan using Shaft 1 as a production shaft at its Platreef palladium, platinum, nickel, copper, gold and rhodium mining licence.

The spot prices of palladium and rhodium have soared in recent months, which Ivanhoe co-chairpersons Robert Friedland and Yufeng Miles Sun say have “propelled Platreef’s metals price basket to a new, all-time high”.

Palladium prices continue to surge to record highs globally, topping $2 100/oz as stricter air-quality rules boost demand for the metal used in vehicle pollution-control devices.

The price of rhodium has surged 32% this month, attaining a price of more than $8 200/oz – the highest price since it reached more than $10 000/oz in 2008.

Following the results of the feasibility study, Ivanhoe’s plans will accelerate the mine’s first production by using Shaft 1 as the mine’s initial production shaft, followed by expansions to the production rate outlined in the project’s 2017 definitive feasibility study.

Ivanhoe’s smaller-scale mine design is also optimised to target the highest-grade areas of the mineral resource in close vicinity to Shaft 1.

Meanwhile, Platreef’s Shaft 1 is at a depth of 957 m below surface and is scheduled to be completed to a final depth of about 1 000 m by the end of July.

Work on Shaft 1’s 950-m-level station – the shaft’s third and final station – is expected to be completed in March.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
DRA Global (prefeasibility study, feasibility study, mining, concentrator and infrastructure); OreWin (economics and National Instrument 43-101 technical report); Moolmans (Shaft 1 sinking contractor); Murray & Roberts Cementation (design and engineering of shaft infrastructure); Stantec Consulting (mine planning); Golder Associates (water studies, backfill and tailings); Digby Wells Environmental (social and environmental); SRK (geotechnical) and Mintek (metallurgical testwork).

On Budget and on Time?
Phase 1 is under development, during which an operating platform will be established to support the start of production.

Contact Details for Project Information
Ivanplats VP and executive head: capital projects Gerick Mouton, tel +27 11 088 4300 or email gerickm@ivanplats.com.