Name of the Project
Styldrift I expansion project.

Location
South Africa’s North West province.

Client
Royal Bafokeng Platinum (RBPlat).

Project Description
The Styldrift project area is located about 5.5 km from the existing Bafokeng Rasimone Platinum Mine (BRPM).

The project will exploit one of the last major shallow Merensky mining blocks on the Western Bushveld.

Styldrift I will deliver an underground trackless operation, which is accessed through a twin vertical shaft system, consisting of the sinking of the main shaft to 758 m and the services shaft to 723 m.

The configuration of the main shaft has been equipped and commissioned and allows for a single-deck personnel-and-material cage compartment that can transport 180 people, a cage counterweight compartment, two Merensky reef skip compartments, each designed to accommodate a 22 t skip, and two future skip compartments, each capable of accommodating a 13 t skip. The services shaft has been equipped and commissioned and allows for a personnel-and-equipment cage and counterweight compartment that can transport 22 people.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
Not stated.

Value
The project is estimated at approximately R12.4-billion.

Duration
Steady-state production is expected in the third quarter of 2020.

Latest Developments
RBPlat’s Styldrift development remains focused on establishing the infrastructure, stoping face length and operational resourcing required to reach 150 000 t/m by the end of 2018.

Capital expenditure (capex) is aligned with project progress requirements while maintaining a healthy balance sheet without impacting on RBPlat’s ability to meet the ramp-up schedule.

RBPlat reported in its interim results for the six months ended June 30, 2018, that while the market in the first six months had improved year-on-year, noncritical path project work remained deferred.

During the reporting period, a total of 3.3 km of capital development was completed on 600 and 642 levels, and the company delivered 402 000 t of on reef development and stoping ore to the concentrator at a built-up head grade of 3.36 g/t platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold, or 4E.

The 6.8 km overland conveyor belt between Styldrift and the BRPM concentrator was commissioned, and progress was made on construction of silos 3 and 4, ventilation shaft No 3 and settler No 1.

Strike conveyors supporting stoping operations, which reduce RBPlat’s reliance on trucking, were completed in four stoping sections in the period, with a further three expected to be completed by year end.

Geotechnical challenges encountered in the raiseboring and construction of silos 3 and 4 resulted in revisions to the silo construction methodology to adequately cater for the conditions. Stability of life-of-mine infrastructure is important to support flexibility and the sustainability of steady state mining of 230 000 t/m. The rehabilitation of Silo 4 requires the installation of sixty 6-m-diameter × 1-m-high rings that are backfilled with concrete to ensure stability of the silo.

Forty of these rings were completed during the first half of the year, with completion of the silo expected during the fourth quarter of 2018. Silo 3 will be commissioned during the second quarter of 2019.

Capex inclusive of operational expenditure, which RBPlat capitalised on the project, amounted to R1.3-billion for the first six months of the year bringing the total capex for the project to date to R9.76-billion.
 

Key Contracts and Suppliers
WorleyParsons (main project engineering); Anglo Technical Division (mine shaft design); Mining & Engineering Technical Services, or Mets (services shaft headgears); Shaft Sinkers (main and services shafts and associated works until January 2015, when RBPlat terminated its contract); Louwill Engineering (main and services shafts headgears and winder-house structural manufacturing and erection); FLSmidth Minerals (main shaft personnel and material winder mechanical portion); Actom – formerly Alstom Industry (main shaft personnel-and-material winder – electrical portion); Coilmech (service winder – mechanical and electrical portions); Stefanutti Stocks Civils Wramatshe joint venture (civils Phase 2 contract – main bulk surface civils); Sarens (cranes), Sandvik Mining (underground primary trackless fleet); Fermel (secondary trackless fleet); Master Drilling, Murray & Roberts and Redpath (vertical raiseboring) and Howden (surface fan supply and installation).

All procurement and construction management are currently owner-managed.

On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
RBPlat executive: corporate affairs Mpueleng Pooe, tel +27 10 590 4515 or email mpueleng@bafokengplatinum.co.za, or investor relations executive Lindiwe Montshiwagae, tel +27 10 590 4517 or email lindiwe@bafokengplatinum.co.za.