JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Aim- and ASX-listed Sylvania Resources has received approval from the Limpopo Department of Economic Development, Environment and Tourism for the establishment of a new platinum-group metals (PGMs) tailings facility at its Lannex mine, near Steelpoort, in the eastern Bushveld.

The PGMs-miner has been forced to temporarily suspend its Lannex operation, as it awaited the final approvals for the new tailings facility, which would enable the Lannex processing plant to reach full design capacity of 70 000 t/m of feed from dump and run-of-mine resources.

The Lannex plant was commissioned in September last year, but has been operating at only 30% of its nameplate capacity, as a result of constraints on the amount of tailings that came from its current temporary tailings dam.

Sylvania determined that it was not cost effective to run the plant at only 30% of its design output, as it was incurring an average production cost of about R5 000/oz.

The company expected to start construction on the new dam during the second quarter of this year, but was still awaiting a water use license from the Department of Water Affairs and final permission from the Department of Mineral Resources.

Nevertheless, Sylvania had already appointed a contractor to build the facility over a ten-week period.

“Although this suspension of Lannex is disappointing, there have been significant advantages in operating the plant at 30% capacity to identify the inevitable operational issues that arise with the full commissioning of such a PGM project,” MD Terence McConnachie said in a statement on Wednesday.

He added that once the final permits and permission had been granted, the expansion of its tailings capacity should take less than three months to be completed.

Meanwhile, Sylvania noted that its Millsell and Steelpoort plants continued to operate at full capacity, while the Mooinooi plant was increasing production.

Further, the Doornbosch tailings plant remained on schedule to be commissioned in June.

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