Zimbabwe-based platinum producer Zimplats’ Mupfuti mine was on schedule to reach design production capacity early this year, the company said in October last year, reporting that its Ngezi Phase 2 expansion project was progressing well.
The $460-million, Phase 2 expansion, which involves the development of Portal 3 – Mupfuti, was approved in May 2010 and consists of a two-million-tonne-a-year underground mine, a concentrator module of the same capacity and related infrastruc-ture. It is expected to increase the oper- ation’s production to 6.2-million tonnes a year.
The Phase 1 expansion project, valued at $340-million, was completed in 2009 and allowed for the simultaneous development of the 1.2-million-tonne-a-year mining Portal 1, called Ngwarati; the one-million-tonne-a-year Portal 2, called Rukodzi; the two-million-tonne-a-year Portal 4, called Bimha, at the Ngezi platinum mine; the construction of a new two-million-tonne-a-year concentrator; 715 new staff houses near Ngezi; and the upgrade of amenities in the area.
The expansion had increased the mine’s overall throughput from 2.2-million tonnes a year to 4.2-million tonnes a year.