Amplats secures long-life mine
Miner buys out partners of highly mechanised Mototolo joint venture mine and unlocks extension plan into Der Brochen property
Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) has secured a long-life asset with growth potential by buying its partners out of the Mototolo joint venture mine and unlocking the neighbouring Der Brochen property.
Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) has secured a long-life asset with growth potential by buying its partners out of the Mototolo joint venture mine and unlocking the neighbouring Der Brochen property.
While Amplats may have initially wanted to invite its partner Glencore to continue the joint venture by extending into the Der Brochen property, the sole ownership of the Mototolo mine is ideal for the world’s thirdlargest platinum producer.
Amplats now has an additional growth option in its armoury, with the highly mechanised, shallow Mototolo mine a perfect fit in its strategy and one that allows it to extend mining into Der Brochen without replicating surface infrastructure.
The Mototolo and Der Brochen properties are on the southern end of the eastern limb of the bushveld igneous complex, close to the town of Burgersfort, Limpopo.
Amplats has flagged the social risks of starting a mine at Der Brochen, including high poverty around the property, low levels of education and mining skills, complex land claims, leadership and chieftain disputes and high community expectations regarding sharing the benefits of a new mine and procurement opportunities.
Amplats said last week it has completed the transactions with Glencore to buy its 40.2% stake in Mototolo for an upfront payment of R900m and monthly payments over the next six years based on the rand price for the basket of metals coming from the mine.
The transaction has a net present value of about R1.5bn.
Amplats also finalised the buyout of Kagiso Platinum Ventures’ 9.8% stake in the venture for R267m.
One of the quick tasks Amplats will tackle is a low-cost “de-bottlenecking”, a range of tweaks to improve the efficiencies of the Mototolo concentrator, which can process 210,000 tons of ore a month. The adjustments could lift this to 240,000 tons a month, says Amplats CEO Chris Griffith, pointing out the programme will run for 18-24 months if approved.
A more expensive option is under investigation to add a dense media separator ahead of the plant to add 50% to production, or double it, if Amplats decides to build two new declines in the Der Brochen tenement. A costly project like this will compete against expansion plans at Mogalakwena, the opencast mine to the north that is the most profitable platinum mine in the company.
The project at Mogalakwena, which will involve building a third concentrator at an indicative cost of up to R12bn, will increase palladium output by 270,000oz a year and platinum by 250,000oz, on top of about 500,000oz of each metal coming from the mine now.
As there is a gaping and continued deficit in the palladium market, which reached a shortfall of 800,000oz in 2017, the expansion is not ill-conceived, Griffith said.
The thinking for the Mototolo/Der Brochen properties is trending towards the cheaper option of building one new decline to replace one of the two existing Mototolo declines that is nearing the end of its life in the next five years.
At the second Mototolo decline there is the potential to add 20 years of life by going deeper into unmined resources.