The China Development Bank has approved a $650-million loan for the development of Wesizwe Platinum’s new Bakubung platinum mine project in North West province. Read on page 11 of this edition of Mining Weekly of Wesizwe establishing an accredited rock-drill operator academy as part of a training initiative to support future employment needs. The Bakubung project, on the western limb of the Bushveld Complex, near Rustenburg, is within budget and on schedule to start its main commissioning in 2018 and full production in 2023. When the China-Africa Jinchuan Investment consortium paid $227-million for 45% of the JSE-listed Wesizwe in 2011, it undertook to provide $877-million in funding for the Bakubung project.

South Africa’s hard-pressed mineworkers are lifting themselves up by their own dusty bootstraps into a new era of affordable self-education and training. Read on page 10 of this edition of Mining Weekly of the hitherto-low-profile Mineworkers Investment Trust (MIT) letting it be known that it is backing the Elijah Barayi Memorial Training Centre to attain full further-education-and-training accreditation to equip mineworkers with the skills they need to engage with their employers. All courses will be free of charge for the members of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and their dependants. The MIT also funds the JB Marks Education Trust Fund, which has disbursed more than 4 000 bursaries, and the Mineworkers Development Agency, which is establishing a marula oil project in Mpumalanga for export to the US. The R3-million seed capital that the NUM gave the MIT in 1995 has grown to R368-million.

Diamond junior DiamondCorp has started work on the development of 47 Level at its R384-million Lace diamond mine near Kroonstad, in the Free State. Read on page 10 of this edition of Mining Weekly of the JSE- and Aim-listed company expecting to recover the first diamonds from the 1.2-million-ton-a-year underground block-cave development in the third quarter of 2014. Three block caves are planned on the 47, 67 and 85 levels at depths of 470 m, 670 m and 850 m. When the operation peaks in 2025, the Lace mine – named after South African gold and diamond mining Randlord Dale Lace – will be producing at a rate of 500 000-plus carats a year. Revenue is forecast at R421-million during the 43 months of development before full production of 100 000 t/m is achieved. The resource is said to be worth more than $2-billion at $160/ct. Development of 47 Level was able to begin as a result of DiamondCorp receiving the first $3-million tranche of a $6-million term loan from the Tiffany subsidiary, Laurelton Diamonds. The second $3-million tranche is due to be paid on April 10. Total current project finance of R320-million is made up of the $6-million from Laurelton, £4.2-million from convertible bonds and a R220-million facility from South Africa’s State-owned Industrial Development Corporation.