Driefontein mine
JSE- and NYSE-listed Sibanye-Stillwater has reported a 40% increase in platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold (4E) platinum group metal (PGM) reserves at its South African operations to 39.5-million ounces.
This is primarily owing to the inclusion of the Marikana K4 project and the Klipfontein opencast project’s additions to reserves, at 12.7-million ounces and 100 000 oz of 4E PGMs, respectively, following detailed feasibility studies.
The company also reports a 7%, or 5.8-million-ounce, increase in palladium and platinum (2E) PGM mineral resources, with additional mineral reserves of 800 000 oz of 2E PGMs defined at the East Boulder mine, in the US, replacing combined depletion of 700 000 oz during 2020.
Sibanye has 26.9-million ounces of 2E PGM mineral reserves at its US operations.
Its US and South African PGMs operations had combined resources of 304-million ounces and combined reserves of 66.4-million ounces, as at December 31, 2020.
Meanwhile, Sibanye has mineral reserves of 11.3-million ounces of gold at its South African operations, with depletion of one-million ounces in 2020 offset by an 800 000 oz increase in attributable mineral reserves from DRDGold, owing to an increased shareholding from 38.05% to 50.1%, as at December 31, 2020.
The company also reported an additional 200 000 oz mineral reserve derived from secondary reef exploration programmes at the Driefontein operation.
Its total gold resource stood at 85-million ounces, while its gold reserve was at 15-million ounces.
Sibanye says the reserve estimates are indicative of the considerable underlying mineral asset base that the company has, which supports sustainable and robust long-life production.