Preparations have begun for the resumption of site work at Ivanhoe’s platinum project, near Mokopane, in Limpopo province, with the construction of the initial production shaft of the planned underground mine the focal point of the first phase of development of an initiative that has been decades in the making.

Ivanhoe Mines founder Robert Friedland expressed confidence last week that the $1.7- billion project would come to symbolise a new era in South Africa’s third century of discovery and mine building.

“We are committed to making Platreef an industry model of safety and productivity,” said Friedland.

Formal notifications of a return to work had been provided to provincial authorities and landowners and plant and earthmoving equipment were being moved back onto the site of Platreef’s first planned shaft.

“We’re committed to resuming site work as soon as practically possible,” said Ivanhoe CEO Lars-Eric Johansson.

Work at the site was halted on May 26, pending the receipt of an executed mining right, or licence, for the development and operation of the mine.

While the mining right had been granted on May 30, its formal activation by the Department of Mineral Resources was completed on November 4 following the company’s satisfactory completion of a number of conditions, which included an approved broad-based black economic- empowerment structure, representing communities, employees and entrepreneurs, which now held a combined 26% interest in the project.

A priority continued to be the completion of the excavation at the boxcut to establish access for the construction of the large concrete surface collar for the first shaft, which would also serve as a base that would anchor the headframe structure and house the ventilation opening.

Intent on making the venture an example of responsive leadership in providing jobs, skills training and new business opportunities, and sustaining community benefits and effective environmental management, Friedland described the orebody as a prize right out of a geologist’s dream and one of special significance for project manager-geologist Sello Kekana, who was born and raised on the Turfspruit farm where the discovery was made.

An independent study undertaken for the Toronto-listed Ivanhoe has pointed to the project having the potential to be Africa’s lowest- cost producer of platinum-group metals (PGMs) over a 30-year horizon.

A preliminary economic assessment has recommended a phased approach to the development of a large, mechanised, underground mine, the base-case scenario targeting 785 000 oz of platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold a year, with significant amounts of copper and nickel by-product.

“All of our stakeholders will share in the realisation of the promise of our discovery,” Friedland explained.

The Platreef story began more than 20 years ago when Australia-based international geologist Bill Hayden approached Ivanhoe Capital to discuss potential exploration financing after lodging a second application for prospecting rights to the Turfspruit and Macalacaskop properties that host the project’s orebody.

While early years of exploration identified a significant, shallow resource of PGM mineralisation, it was the company’s decision to launch a deep exploration programme in 2007 that led to what could become a game changing development for the platinum industry.

Trading house Itochu Corporation led a consortium including Japan Oil, Gas & Metals National Corporation, Japan Gas Corporation and ITC Platinum Development in the acquisition of 10% shareholding in the venture.

“They know the science of mineral processing and refining. They also have an acute appreciation of just how much platinum and palladium this urbanising planet is going to require to accommodate the growth of cities and to maintain a healthy global environment in the coming decades,” said Friedland.