The Bauba project, situated on the eastern limb of the Bushveld Igneous Complex, in Limpopo, represents a large targeted resource of 138-million ounces of platinum-group metals (PGMs) – not South African Mineral Resource Committee (Samrec) compliant, but verified by an independent competent person – PGMs exploration company Bauba Platinum executive manager Grant Pitt tells Mining Weekly.

Bauba Platinum is under way with a scoping study on the southern cluster of its properties, situated within the eastern limb of the Bushveld Igneous Complex.

The study, which started last year, forms part of the company’s project development plan, known as the Bauba project, and is expected to be complete by the end of the first quarter of this year.

The scoping study is being undertaken by independent consultancy group Venmyn and mining engineering and mine design services provider Sound Mining Solutions.

The study is running concurrently with the ongoing exploration drilling programme on the properties, as well as the compilation of a Samrec-compliant resource estimate.

“The study will form the baseline for future work on the properties and is the first definite phase in the development of mining assets, the following phases being prefeasibility, feasibility and bankable feasibility studies,” the company states.

The Bauba project, which consists of eight farms over which Bauba Platinum has prospecting rights, aims to establish a mine that produces an initial 350 000 oz/y of PGMs within the next ten years. Further, the company is looking at doubling production levels from the overall resource base in future years.

The company acquired a 60% interest in the project with a 40% direct shareholding belonging to the local Bapedi community at asset level.

The company states that the area is expected to reveal both Merensky reef and upper-group two (UG2) chromitite layer occurrences.

Bauba Platinum also reports that the drilling of borehole No 6 is currently in process, while borehole No 12 is complete and has intersected both the Merensky reef and the UG2 reef. The core is in the process of being logged, sampled and sent for assay.

An estimate of the on-site resource tonnage on the farms is 860-million tons, which includes an estimated 138-million ounces of PGMs content.

Bauba Platinum CEO Pine Pienaar says that these results provide a firm foundation for producing a Samrec-compliant resource statement.