Shaft 1 at Ivanplats’ Platreef project, near Mokopane ,in South Africa, has reached a depth of 850 m below the surface and work has begun on the 850 m station – the second of three horizontal mining access stations planned for the shaft that is currently under construction.

The first mining access station has been constructed at the 750 m level, following earlier development of a water pumping station at the 450 m level.

The 750 m and 850 m stations on Shaft 1 will provide initial underground mining access to the high-grade Flatreef orebody, enabling lateral mine development to proceed during the construction of Shaft 2, which will become the mine’s main production shaft.

The third mining access station will be developed at a mine working depth of 950 m.

Shaft 1 is expected to reach its projected, final depth of about 980 m below the surface, complete with four of the stations, in early 2020, Ivanplats parent company Ivanhoe Mines reaffirmed on Tuesday.

The Canadian company, which indirectly owns 64% of the Platreef project, further reported that excavation at the Shaft 2 box cut had been completed to a depth of 29 below the surface. Construction of the concrete hitch was underway, which would provide the foundation for the 103 m tall concrete headgear that would house Shaft 2’s permanent hoisting facilities.

Shaft 2 is about 100 m north-east of Shaft 1 and will have a final depth of 1 104 m below the surface.

Phase 1 of the Platreef project, located adjacent to Anglo Platinum’s Mogalakwena mine, will operate at an initial mining rate of four-million tonnes a year, producing an average of 219 000 oz of palladium, 214 000 oz of platinum, 30 000 oz of gold and 14 000 oz of rhodium, plus 21-million pounds of nickel and 13-million pounds of copper.

Ivanplats has secured a long-term agreement with the Mogalakwena municipality for the supply of local, treated wastewater for the first phase of production at Platreef.

The municipality will supply five-million litres of the 7.5-million litres that the mine will require each day. The balance of the water will be sourced from boreholes and rainwater collected in storage ponds.