JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Impala Platinum Holdings Limited (Implats) intends to apply to South Africa’s National Air Quality Officer for an alternative sulphur dioxide (SO₂) emissions limit to ensure continued lawful operation while the implementation of a long-term compliance solution is finalised at its processing facility in North West province.

Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed Implats states this in a full-page advertisement in Thursday’s The Citizen newspaper, dated 17 July.

Impala operates the platinum group metals (PGM) processing facility in Rustenburg to process the mined PGMs ore from Impala Rustenburg Operations.

The advertisement states that the National Air Quality Officer granted Impala postponement for compliance with minimum emission standards (MES) for particulate matter (PM) emissions from spray drying, and SO₂ emissions from the tailgas scrubber, until 31 December 2024, and that Impala had used the postponement to reduce PM emissions to comply with the new limits for the tailgas scrubber.

Accordingly, this application for the alternative SO₂ limit seeks to ensure the continued lawful operation of the Impala facility, while the implementation of the long-term compliance solution is finalised and sustained regulatory compliance is achieved.

Impala, the advertisement states, will submit a motivation report together with an atmospheric impact report (AIR) in support of the Regulation 12A application in accordance with applicable regulatory requirements.

AIR will involve “independent and objective analysis” of the potential impact of the application on ambient air quality,” the advertisement points out.

Additionally, Impala will undertake a public participation process to enable any interested and affected parties to review and comment on the application.

Environmental consultancy Air Resource Management has been appointed together with specialists from Airshed Planning Professionals to prepare the application and oversee the public participation process.

The opening of the registration of interested and affected parties will begin on Friday, 18 July.

The registration period will run concurrently with the review and commenting period of the draft AIR and motivation report, which will be available for 30 calendar days from 1 August to 31 August for interested and affected party review and comment.

Impala’s mining and processing facility, in accordance with the National Environmental Management Air Quality Act, 2004, is required to comply with the atmospheric emission licence, which mandates adherence to the MES.

Implats’ 2024 environmental, social and governance (ESG) report recorded the completion of the installation of a new flash dryer, which meets the MES.

The project, the ESG report stated, was initiated in November 2020 at a cost of R343-million.

A further project to improve air quality from the operation’s older dryer plants was approved in September 2023 and involved installing flue gas conditioning equipment, with particulate emissions below 20 mg/Nm³ predicted, which is below the MES. Hot commissioning was scheduled for November 2024.

Impala Rustenburg’s smelter reportedly uses SO₂ abatement technologies, such as the SulfAcid catalytic conversion and Dynawave wet lime forced oxidation processes.

In June 2024, it initiated a R56-million project to replace the activated carbon catalyst in one of the operation’s two acid plants. The catalyst was described as being instrumental in converting up to 27 t of SO₂ a day into acid, which is used in other processes.