Modern Mining January 2020

PLATINUM GROUP METALS

With the spot prices of palladium and rhodium soaring in recent months, TSX-listed Ivanhoe Mines has announced that the company’s South African subsidiary, Ivanplats, is fast-tracking a feasibility study on a smaller-scale, early-stage development plan for its Platreef project near Mokopane in Limpopo Province. This would allow first production to be achieved earlier than originally planned by using Shaft 1 as a production shaft. Ivanplats fast-tracks Platreef study comes from mines in South Africa, and global pro- duction of rhodium is only approximately one million ounces annually. Since 2007, Ivanhoe has focused its exploration and development activities at Platreef on defining and advancing the underground Flatreef deposit. With a strike length of 6,5 km, the Flatreef lies pre- dominantly within a flat-to-gently-dipping portion of the Platreef mineralised belt at relatively shallow depths of approximately 500 m to 1 350 m below surface. It is characterised by its very large vertical thicknesses of high-grade mineralisation.

T he surge in palladium and rhodium prices, as well as recent increases in the price of nickel, copper and gold, have resulted in the weighted price of the ‘basket’ of metals contained in the ore at Platreef to rise to a new, multi-year high. Palladium has recently been selling at a 10-year high (topping US$2 100 an ounce) and rhodium has also performed spectacularly, attaining (as this article was being prepared) a price of US$8 200 an ounce, the highest since it hit US$10 000 an ounce in 2008. One of the lesser known platinum group metals, rhodium is chemically stable at high temperatures, resistant to corrosion and mainly used with palla- dium and platinum in the production of automobile catalytic converters that curb harmful emissions. Approximately 80 % of the world’s rhodium supply

The mining zones in the current Platreef mine plan occur at depths ranging from approximately 700 m to 1 200 m below surface. Planned mining methods will use highly productive, mechanised methods, including long-hole stoping and drift-and- fill mining. Each method will utilise cemented backfill for maximum ore extraction. As detailed in the 2017 definitive feasibility study, the first phase of development at Platreef envisages an annual throughput of 4 Mt, producing 476 000 ounces of platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold (3PE+Au), plus 33 million pounds of nickel and copper. An independent feasibility study is underway

The Platreef site showing the Shaft 1 headframe and the stockpile of development rock from ongoing shaft-sinking work in Shaft 1.

58  MODERN MINING  January 2020