Eastern Platinum Ltd (Eastplats) has announced that its subsidiary, Barplats Mines (Pty) Ltd, has entered into a project framework agreement with Advanced Beneficiation Technologies Pty Ltd of South Africa (ABT), an organisation fully compliant as a Black Economic Empowerment Entrepreneur and a member of the Omang Group of companies, to complete an independent feasibility study for the development and construction of a new modular plant with the capacity to process the platinum group metals of the tailings redeposited at a designated area of the Zandfontein Tailings Dam.

The tailings dam is situated at the Crocodile River mine in South Africa and production would be at a rate of between 20,000 and 50,000 t per month (the final rate is dependent on the optimal outcome of the Feasibility Study).

There are several milestones required by Eastplats and the Project Agreement to complete and establish this project, including the completion (at ABT’s risk and cost), assessment and acceptance of the Feasibility Study expected during November 2020, to be followed by the conclusion of various agreements, including a joint venture agreement between Barplats and ABT and procuring appropriate funding.

Barplats will supply the material and related infrastructure for PGMs processing from the Zandfontein Tailings Dam, establish an appropriate off-take agreement, and support the project through both executive management and administration.

ABT, as the intended operator, is responsible to complete the Feasibility Study (including appropriate drilling), secure appropriate funding, oversee the construction and commissioning and operate the project as governed by the project agreement.

Diana Hu, the CEO of Eastplats, stated: “We are very pleased to sign this project agreement with ABT and begin this feasibility study and the project. This venture is a new potential revenue source for the company without any additional capital funding obligations and an opportunity to recover PGMs from the tailings redeposited onto the Zandfontein Tailings Dam.”

Eastplats owns directly and indirectly a number of PGMs and chrome assets in the Republic of South Africa. All of the company’s properties are situated on the western and eastern limbs of the Bushveld Complex, the geological environment that hosts approximately 80% of the world’s PGM-bearing ore.

Operations at the Crocodile River mine currently include re-mining and processing its tailings resource, with an offtake of the chrome concentrate from the Barplats Zandfontein UG2 tailings facility.