TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – On the heels of completing the commissioning of its Maseve mine plant on March 31, South Africa-focused precious-metals producer Platinum Group Metals (PTM) has produced about 1 700 4E ounces, containing platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold, in April alone.

The Vancouver-incorporated company advised Thursday that during February, March and April, most of the milled tonnes were sourced from lower-grade development muck mined from primary development along the rich Merensky reef of the country’s fabled Bushveld Igneous Complex.

However, the company had last month reported that, owing to continued performance that lagged behind the mine plan schedule, lower metal prices, delays in production ramp-up or a stronger South African rand could all result in further financing requirements. As a result, an updated mine plan called for about 110 000 oz to the end of April 2017, compared with previous guidance for 116 000 oz in the 2016 calendar year.

WORKING FACILITIES
PTM advised that it would issue 131 654 common shares to Sprott Resource Lending Partnership and 131 654 common shares of the company to Liberty Metals & Mining Holdings to amend their respective $40-million working capital facilities.

Effective Tuesday, the amendments provided the company with increased flexibility to accommodate the production ramp-up delay.

Under the amendments, the provision whereby Maseve had to reach and maintain on a three-month rolling average at least 60% of planned production for a three-month period, had been extended by three months, now starting six months from March 31. The provision that Maseve must reach and maintain at least 70% of planned production on a three-month rolling average had been pushed back three months until nine months from completion.

The shares issued represented about $400 000 each, priced at the five-day volume weighted average price on the TSX of C$4.18 a share, less a 7.5% discount, converted to US dollars.

RAMPING UP
Currently, stoped mining tonnes were increasing as a percentage of mill feed. Mining to date had by now exposed 29 ends in the Merensky reef and had been set up, with mining now continuing in these areas. PTM reported reconciliation from underground sampling to grade thickness in the current National Instrument 43-101-compliant technical report for the Maseve resource plans as being “good”.

Primary headings into the important Block 11, for planned mechanised room and pillar mining, were now within 250 m and two-and-a-half months of initial access.

The company is shaping up to become a major regional platinum group metals player, as it progressed work on its Waterberg discovery elsewhere in the country’s platinum-rich North West province, where it had defined five large potential mining blocks, each at a scale typical of a standalone South African platinum mine shaft or decline complex.

The company’s subsidiary Waterberg Joint Venture, which was funded by the Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation, was engaged in drilling the discoveries.