Canada-based platinum-group metals (PGMs) company Eastern Platinum in October announced the successful commissioning of its PGMs Main Circuit B following the completion of the refurbishment and upgrade work that started in May.

Construction and precommissioning were completed in September and commercial production of PGM concentrates started from October 18 with planned dispatches to the company’s offtake partner scheduled from October 26.

Eastern Platinum completed the commissioning to enable processing of the full feed from chrome tails to consistently produce PGM concentrates. It estimates an additional 600 t/m of PGM concentrates will be added to the current production of 200 t/m, once production ramp-ups are achieved, which is projected to be around the first quarter of 2022.

Eastern Platinum CEO and director Diana Hu said: “The commissioning of the PGMs Main Circuit B represents a significant milestone in our revenue growth plans. “Our [Eastern Platinum] team continues to deliver on schedule under challenging circumstances.”

She adds that the circuit will also expand Eastern Platinum’s future development potential, including the possibility of restarting underground operations at the Crocodile River mine (CRM) to provide economic, social and labour benefits to the community and company stakeholders. We expect the PGMs market to remain robust for the remainder of 2021 and years beyond.”

Moreover, the company completed a life-of-mine (LoM) study and underground mine design for Zandfontein – the core section of the CRM.

The study and design include evaluations such as the mining method trade-off study

with quantity and quality reports on the LoM scenarios and the design and scheduling of the required underground infrastructure, the ventilation plan, the underground support systems and logistics plan, layouts and configurations.

These evaluations also comprise capital expenditure and operating expenditure, including equipment fleet required.

Moreover, based on the results of the study, the Eastern Platinum board of directors support carrying out the Zandfontein Underground restart business plan, subject to final evaluation and funding arrangements.

Eastern Platinum directly and indirectly owns several PGMs and chrome assets in South Africa. All of it’s properties are situated on the western and eastern limbs of the Bushveld Complex, the geological environment that hosts about 80% of the world’s PGMs-bearing ore. Operations at the Crocodile River Mine currently include re-mining and processing its tailings resource to produce chrome and PGMs concentrates from the Barplats Zandfontein UG2 tailings facility.