JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – JSE-listed Bauba Platinum is cautiously optimistic of securing a 20-year mining right to replace the current small-scale mining permit over its Moeijelijk chrome deposit, in Limpopo, by the first quarter of 2016.
The company lodged the application with the Department of Mineral Resources earlier this year after fulfilling the last legislative condition required before the start of full-scale mining.
Discussions were currently under way with “various parties” to start the underground chrome operations in 2016, subject to the granting of the mining right and prevailing market conditions.
“If underground mining operations commence, then these operations will run in parallel with existing opencast operations, consequently rendering a significant increase in tonnages to be mined monthly,” the company said in a statement.
Since the first blast in March, the company has achieved the targeted production rate of 20 000 t/m of chrome.