The construction of a chrome recovery plant at Bokoni platinum mine has been approved by the board of African Rainbow Minerals (ARM).

ARM acquired Bokoni from Anglo American Platinum and Atlatsa Resources in September 2022.

Located on 15 000 ha of the eastern limb of the Bushveld Complex in Limpopo, the opencast Bokoni mine has chrome-rich upper group two (UG2) mineralisation.

“We are currently doing the detailed design and at the beginning of next year, we’ll be starting with the construction of the chrome recovery plant,” ARM CEO Phillip Tobias reported during the company’s presentation of results for the 2024 year ended June 30.

“Taking advantage of where the chrome prices are, we do believe that it will enhance our basket by at least 10% into the future.”

In response to Engineering News & Mining Weekly’s request for more insight into the chrome recovery plant and the volume of chrome that is expected to be recovered, Tobias said the rationale behind the decision was that chrome was coming in at a cost of R670/t with the selling price at around R3 600/t, thus giving a healthy margin.

“So, highly profitable, high demand, high margin,” was Tobias’ response. Currently, China is a significant buyer of chrome ore.

On the back of that, ARM is intent on aligning Bokoni to what the company has done at the Modikwa and Two Rivers platinum group metals (PGM) operations.

“That is additional revenue that comes on top of what we already have in terms of the fixed costs, therefore being able to dilute the overall operating cost,” Tobias explained.

The current 60 000 t a month production level of UG2-endowed Bokoni is described as unsustainable.

“We know that is below par,” said Tobias, with a 240 000 t a month capacity seen as being ideal.

“So, we are currently busy with the studies, looking at analysis to say, how do we really improve the situation, because at 60 000 t a month it’s costly,” added Tobias.

In addition to PGMs, ARM, headed by executive chairperson Dr Patrice Motsepe, mines and beneficiates iron-ore, manganese ore, chrome ore, nickel and coal and also has a strategic investment in gold through Harmony Gold Mining Company.