Modern Mining December 2015

MINING News

Shaft-sinking activities start at Platreef

three contiguous properties: Turfspruit, Macalacaskop and Rietfontein. Turfspruit, the northernmost property, is contigu- ous with, and along strike from, Anglo Platinum’s Mogalakwena group of mining operations and properties. Since 2007, Ivanhoe has focused its exploration activities on defining and advancing the down-dip extension of its original Platreef discovery, now known as the Flatreef deposit, which is amenable to highly mechanised, underground min- ing methods. The Flatreef area lies entirely on the Turfspruit and Macalacaskop properties. Ivanplats, Ivanhoe’s subsidiary, com- pleted a Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) in January 2015 that covered the first phase of development that is expected to include construction of an underground mine, concentrator and other associated infra- structure to support initial concentrate production by 2019. The planned initial average annual pro- duction rate is 433 000 ounces of platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold (3PE+Au), plus 19 million pounds of nickel and 12 million pounds of copper.  indicated resources. A total of 254 750 tonnes of Blanket Quartz Reef, No 1 and No 2 orebodies, has been upgraded. The combined total of new and upgraded indicated resources of 476 750 tonnes is in addition to the 3,47 Mt tonnes of reserves and indicated resources follow- ing the May 2015 upgrade. This upgrade and addition represents an increase of 14 % per cent in terms of tonnes and 19 % in terms of contained gold and equates to two years of production at 2014 production levels. 

Shaft-sinking activities underway in the Platreef’s Shaft 1 (photo: Ivanhoe Mines).

Ivanhoe Mines, listed on the TSX, has announced that initial shaft-sinking activi- ties (drilling, blasting and mucking) at its Platreef project’s Shaft 1 commenced on October 26, 2015, following successful construction of the shaft collar and venti- lation plenum. Shaft 1 will have an internal diameter of 7,25 m. It is projected to intersect the Flatreef deposit at a depth of 777 m below surface in late 2017 and reach its total depth of 975 m in 2018. Selected mining areas in the current Platreef mine plan occur at depths ranging from approxi- mately 700m to 1 200mbelow the surface. The Platreef project hosts an under- ground deposit of thick, platinum group metals, nickel, copper and gold miner- alisation in the Northern Limb of the

Bushveld Complex, approximately 280 km north-east of Johannesburg. Platreef’s southern sector consists of

Caledonia announces upgrade of Blanket’s resources Canada’s Caledonia Mining has announced an increase and upgrade to the resource base at its 49 %-owned subsidiary, the Blanket mine in Zimbabwe.

Based on the diamond core drilling that has been done at depth below the AR South Section over the past six months, it has been possible to add 222 000 tonnes of new inventory to the indicated resource cat- egory plus a further 283 000 tonnes to the inferred resource category. Infill drilling has continued at Blanket Section to upgrade inferred resources to

December 2015  MODERN MINING  7