Anooraq’s Bokoni concentrator  plant upgrade complete

By: Loni Prinsloo

Published: 29th January 2010

JSE- and TSX-listed platinum company Anooraq Resources  recently completed its concentrator plant upgrade project at the company’s Bokoni platinum mine in Limpopo province.

Anooraq CEO Philip Kotze says that the company remains focused on turning Bokoni into a profitable and sustainable operation. “Increased production throughput going forward is a key ingredient for our success at the mine, both on the production and the costs sides of the equation.”

The project included an upgrade  to the main-stream pumps to  accommodate additional production throughput, the introduction of cyclone clusters for more efficient classification and an upgrade to the Merensky concentrator primary mill from an autogenous grinding mill to a semiautogenous grinding mill to assist with grinding run-of-mine ore.

The total capital spent on the concentrator plant upgrade was R118-million and the project was completed in time and within budget estimates.

The plant upgrade increases Bokoni’s milling capacity to  165 000 t/m, of which 120 000 t/m  of production is expected to come from the Merensky reef and  45 000 t/m from the upper group two reef.

This upgrade ensures the Bokoni concentrator plant is ready to accommodate the company’s planned first-phase production expansion plan to  160 000 t/m by 2014.

“This is one of the key projects we identified on the critical path when we first assumed operational control at Bokoni and  we are pleased that the concentrator plant now has sufficient capacity to mill all our first-phase growth production plan feed building up to 2014,” concludes Kotze.

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