By: Creamer media

The company advises that the ramp-up of the Phase 1 concentrator on site is advancing on schedule, with the first sale of concentrate having been completed.

Additionally, Shaft 3 is on track to start operating from April, which expands the mine’s hoisting capacity to five-million tonnes a year and enables the Phase 1 and Phase 2 expansions.

The company says Platreef’s Phase 2 development is also on track, which will increase production in under 24 months to about 450 000 oz of platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold.

Ivanhoe has secured a $700-million senior project finance facility for the Phase 2 expansion of the mine.

Taking into account current record metal prices, Ivanhoe aims to drastically bring forward the date for the Phase 3 expansion.

Ivanhoe co-chairperson Robert Friedland says the development comes as the world enters a new metals “supercycle” where precious and base metals are no longer optional, but essential.

The platinum group metals basket price currently exceeds $2 500/oz, while Platreef’s by-products, copper and nickel, are also enjoying high prices.

He adds that Platreef is a one-in-a-generation orebody, which will be producing precious metals for generations. The mine has 59-million ounces in the indicated category and 94-million ounces in the inferred category.

“The Platreef mine is not a typical South African precious metals mine scratching at narrow, 1-m-thick seams, it is a geological wonder.

“The flat-lying orebody is about 25 times thicker than our industry incumbents, averaging 26 m of continuous mineralisation. This thickness means scale, which means mechanisation, and mechanisation means lower costs and safer operations,” Friedland explains.