JSE- and TSX-listed Eastern Platinum (Eastplats) has commissioned a platinum group metals (PGM) processing facility at its flagship Crocodile River mine (CRM) located within the Bushveld Complex in north-eastern South Africa.

“This operational milestone marks our transition from a tailings storage facility (TSF) chrome recovery operation to a growing PGM concentrate and metallurgical chrome concentrate producer, and we look forward to reporting PGM and metallurgical chrome revenues from the Zandfontein underground section as run-of-mine (RoM) ore tonnages ramp up,” says Eastplats CEO and president Wanjin Yang.

Commissioning of the processing plant (Circuit B) is ongoing and the plant has begun processing Upper Group 2 (UG2) RoM ore from the Zandfontein underground operations at the CRM.

A total of 75 000 t of RoM ore was blasted up to October 1, with about 22 000 t of the RoM ore processed in September.

This produced a concentrate containing about 1 300 oz of platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium, ruthenium and gold (6E) metals, which was delivered to Impala Platinum (Implats) under an existing offtake agreement between Eastplats’ subsidiary Barplats Mines and Implats.

Eastplats expects to process 30 000 t of RoM ore this month, producing concentrates containing 2 000 oz to 2 500 oz of 6E metals to be delivered to Implats.

Metallurgical chrome concentrates have been produced as a by-product when the UG2 RoM ore is being processed for PGMs.

Zandfontein underground operations will produce 40 000 t of RoM ore a month by the end of the year as previously guided.

The next ramp-up phase will increase production to 70 000 t of RoM ore a month by the end of 2025.

Eastplats’ Circuit B has an RoM ore processing capacity of one-million tonnes a year.

Up to 185 000 t of underground RoM ore from Zandfontein is expected to be blasted and processed this year.

The company will continue to process historical tailings to recover chrome from its chrome retreatment project, at the CRM, but expects this to wind down in the early part of 2025.

Following the conclusion of this project, Eastplats expects to complete the second phase of its TSF programme to recover chrome and PGMs from tailings generated from the newly operating Zandfontein underground.

By 2026, PGM revenue is expected to account for 65% or more of Eastplats’ total revenue.