Crane manufacturer Condra Cranes has delivered electric hoists, two overhead cranes and several chain blocks to Canada-based Ivanhoe Mines’ South African subsidiary Ivanplat’s Platreef platinum group metals mine, near Mokopane, in Limpopo.

The lifting equipment will be used for machinery maintenance work at various points across the mine site, which has been under development since 2020, after consulting engineering firm Dowding Reynard & Associates selected Condra Cranes for the manufacture of the machines.

Production at the mine, which has two vertical production shafts, a ventilation shaft, a concentrator and associated supporting infrastructure, is expected to start this year, unlocking a 26-m-thick flat orebody extending over several kilometres to deliver 12-megatons a year over a three-decade life span.

Yearly yield is expected to exceed one-million troy ounces of palladium, platinum, rhodium and gold, as well as useful quantities of nickel and copper, a Condra Cranes spokesperson said in a statement issued to Engineering News & Mining Weekly.

The mine’s overhead cranes and hoists are currently being installed.

“The electric cranes, of single- girder and double-girder overhead configuration, are for the filter building and the plant workshop, one of the machines having dust-ignition-proof rating to ATEX Zone 21/22 standard,” the spokesperson points out.

The single-girder crane has a lifting capacity of five tons, while the double-girder crane will lift loads up to ten tons, with both cranes controlled by radio remote with manual pendant backup.

“Two hoists accompanied delivery of the cranes: a short-headroom hoist for the tailings filter, and a K-Series hoist for the mill feed conveyor. Both will be used for maintenance work.”

According to the company, mining applications account for more than half of its orders from customers across sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas, with production at factories in Johannesburg and Cape Town.

The European market is serviced by a subsidiary company in Bulgaria.