There is no argument that the Mogalakwena platinum group metals (PGM) mine in South Africa’s Limpopo province is “definitely” the PGM mining industry’s most exciting endowment, Valterra Platinum executive head of mining operations Willie Theron stated emphatically during the company’s value-chain media briefing.

Valterra has communicated to the market that Mogalakwena, on a six-element (6E) basis, is targeting production of between 900 000 oz and a million ounces a year. “But I just want to highlight our inclusive resource number,” said Theron, as he reported that, on a 4E basis, there are 285-million ounces at Mogalakwena, which against the targeted production offers multi-century life-of-mine potential of 300 years plus – “that’s how massive that resource is,” Theron pointed out.

Then, after going beyond Mogalakwena alone and extending out to the likes of Valterra’s Amandelbult, Mototolo, Twickenham, and Unki, he pointed out that Valterra’s huge resource is enough to keep this Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed company busy “for millennia, never mind decades”.

Mogalakwena mines the Platreef, which Theron explained is not just about mining this reef that others are now also pursuing. “It’s about concentrating the Platreef and going through smelting and refining of the Platreef.”

And there is going to be a lot more of that because the Mogalakwena openpit mine is on the way to being followed by Valterra’s Sandsloot Underground Project.

The Sandsloot Underground Project is an underground PGM development situated beneath the former Sandsloot openpit at the Mogalakwena mine.

“If you look at Mogalakwena specifically, it has a one-to-one platinum-palladium ratio.

“It doesn’t have any chrome, and it has very little rhodium. But it does come with a nice tick on copper and a nice tick on nickel, and it does give us a fair amount of gold.

“Almost 70% of our gold that we produce as a company comes just from Mogalakwena. If you recall, it’s close to 100 000 oz. So, that’s very important to note about the Platreef orebody.

“What’s also interesting about the Platreef orebody is that it dips at a 45º angle and then flattens out.

“So, anyone that looks at the Platreef orebody needs to consider how they’re going to treat base metals and then also how they’re going to deal with Platreef’s characteristics, because what’s also quite interesting about the Platreef orebody is that it has a lot of clay material associated with it, and you don’t use the same PGM-recovery methodologies.”

While Mogalakwena is where major growth is being planned, it is the conventionally mined Amandelbult underground operation that is Valterra’s bigger revenue generator, located as it is on the northern part of the western limb of the Bushveld Igneous Complex – and also, like Mogalakwena, it’s in Limpopo.

Theron emphasised that there is a difference between the northern part of the western limb in that it has 1.5-m-thick upper group two (UG2) reef and when you look at its UG2 specifically, the platinum-palladium ratio is two parts platinum to one part palladium, which turns Amandelbult into the highest valued basket in the Valterra portfolio.

At this moment, Valterra gets more revenue from Amandelbult than Mogalakwena – owing to Mogalakwena having that one-to-one platinum-palladium ratio.

“So, on a revenue basis, Mogalakwena is actually at a lower endowing to Amandelbult being two parts platinum and one part palladium, along with very good rhodium and very good chrome, and also interestingly enough, nice ruthenium and nice iridium, so a very important orebody.”