Name of the Project
Platreef Project – platinum group metals (PGMs), gold, nickel and copper mine.

Location
Mokopane, Limpopo, South Africa.

Client
Ivanhoe Mines indirectly owns 64% of the Platreef project through its subsidiary, Ivanplats, and is directing all mine development work. The South African beneficiaries of the approved broad-based, black economic-empowerment (BBBEE) structure have a 26% stake in the Platreef project and the remaining 10% is owned by a Japanese consortium of Itochu Corporation; Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation; ITC Platinum Development, an Itochu affiliate; and Japan Gas Corporation.

Ivanplats is the top-ranked platinum-sector mining company in terms of compliance with South Africa’s black economic-empowerment laws. The company achieved Level 3 status on the BBBEE scorecard in 2015, 2016 and 2017.

The 20 communities surrounding the Platreef project are widely consulted, with about 150 000 members becoming equity shareholders and an estimated 70% of employees and contractors coming from surrounding communities.

Project Description
The Platreef project is a Tier-1 discovery, which contains the underground Flatreef deposit of PGMs, gold, nickel and copper, located on the northern limb of South Africa’s Bushveld Igneous Complex – the world’s premier platinum-producing region.

Ivanplats has declared an initial probable mineral reserve of 17.6-million ounces of platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold (3PE+Au) – an increase of 13% following stope optimisation and mine sequencing work. The mineral reserve is expected to support a 32-year mine life at steady-state production of four-million tonnes a year.

A definitive feasibility study (DFS), completed in July 2017, proposed a start-up phase approach of four-million tons a year to Platreef’s long-term development.

Key features from the Platreef DFS include:
•  indicated mineral resources that contain an estimated 41.9-million ounces of 3PE+Au, with an additional 52.8-million ounces of 3PE+Au in inferred resources.
• enhanced mineral reserves containing 17.6-million ounces of 3PE+Au – an increase of 13% – following stope optimisation and mine sequencing work.
• the development of a large, safe, mechanised, underground mine, with an initial four-million-ton-a-year concentrator and associated infrastructure.
• a planned initial average production rate of 476 000 oz/y of 3PE+Au, and 21-million pounds of nickel and 13-million pounds of copper.
• Platreef is ranking at the bottom of the cash-cost curve, at an estimated $351/oz of 3PE+Au produced, net of by-products and including sustaining capital costs, and $326/oz before sustaining capital costs.

Phase 2 involves an expansion of the mine to double production to eight-million tonnes a year, placing it among the largest PGM mines in the world.

The third phase involves a further expansion of the mine to a steady state of 12-million tonnes a year, which would become the world’s largest PGM mine.

Mining zones in the current Platreef mine plan occur at depths ranging from about 700 m to 1 200 m below the surface.

The main access to the Flatreef deposit and ventilation system is expected to be through five vertical shafts. Shaft 2 will host the main personnel transport cage, and the material and ore-handling system. Shafts 1, 3, 4 and 5 will provide ventilation for the underground workings. Shaft 1, under development, will also be used for initial access to the deposit and early underground development. Shafts 3, 4 and 5 will be ventilation raises.

Mining will incorporate low-cost, mechanised mining methods, including long-hole stoping and drift-and-fill mining. Mined-out areas will be backfilled with a mixture of tailings from the processing plant and cement. The ore will be hauled from the stopes to a series of ore passes that will connect to a main haulage level at Shaft 2, from where it will be crushed and hoisted to the surface for processing. Shaft 2 will have a hoisting capacity of six-million tons a year.

The flowsheet for Phase 1 comprises a four-million-tonne-a-year, three-stage crushing circuit, which will feed into two parallel milling-flotation modules, each with a capacity of two-million tonnes a year. Flotation will be followed by a four-million-tonne-a-year tailings-handling and concentrate-thickening, filtration and storage circuit.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
Phase 1 has an after-tax net present value of $916-million, at an 8% discount rate, and an after-tax internal rate of return of 14.2%.

Value
The estimated preproduction capital requirement for Phase 1 is about $1.5-billion.

Duration
According to the latest DFS released, Phase 1 is expected to support initial concentrate production by early 2022.

Latest Developments
Ivanhoe Mines has reached the 500 m level below surface of the Platreef project.

The 7.25-m-diameter Shaft 1, which is expected to reach the Flatreef mineralisation at a depth of about 783 m in the third quarter of next year, will be used for initial access to the Flatreef deposit and early underground development.

The shaft's final depth will reach 980 m below surface, with the first shaft station, completed in September at a depth of 450 m, to be used as an intermediate location for water pumping and shaft-cable termination. Ivanhoe has said that as shaft sinking progresses, a further three shaft stations will be developed at mine working depths of 750 m, 850 m and 950 m.

“Our continued development of shafts 1 and 2 will provide access to the Flatreef deposit and help to ensure that the project is able to meet the scheduled, first phase start-up of the underground mine and concentrator by 2022," executive chairperson Robert Friedland has said.

Work to sink Shaft 1 continues to advance at a rate of 40 m to 50 m a month. About 40% of Platreef’s shaft-sinking team comprises employees from local communities who have had no previous mining experience. New employees have received intensive, on-site training for underground mining and completed a workplace-safety induction programme, Ivanhoe has advised.

Early-works surface construction for Shaft 2 started in May, with initial curtain grouting around the boxcut. Further work has focused on digging a surface boxcut to a depth of about 29 m and construction of the concrete hitch for the 103-m-tall concrete headgear that will house the shaft’s permanent hoisting facilities and support the shaft collar. Early-works construction is expected to be completed in the third quarter of next year.

Shaft 2 will have an internal diameter of 10 m and the capacity to hoist six-million tonnes a year. The headgear design for the six-million-tonne-a-year permanent hoisting facility has been completed by South Africa-based Murray & Roberts Cementation.
Key Contracts and Suppliers
DRA Global (prefeasibility study, feasibility study, mining, concentrator and infrastructure); OreWin (economics and National Instrument 43-101 technical report); Aveng Mining (Shaft 1 sinking contractor); Murray & Roberts Cementation (design and engineering of shaft infrastructure); Stantec Consulting (mine planning); Golder Associates (water studies, backfill and tailings); Digby Wells Environmental (social and environmental); SRK (geotechnical); and Mintek (metallurgical testwork).

On Budget and on Time?
Phase 1 is under development, during which an operating platform will be established to support the start of production.

Contact Details for Project Information
Ivanplats VP and executive head: capital projects Gerick Mouton, tel +27 11 088 4300 or email gerickm@ivanplats.com.