RBPlat is located on the Western Limb of the Bushveld Igneous Complex (BIC), the largest known host of PGMs, chromium and vanadium commodities in the world. The BIC formed approximately 2.04 billion years ago on the stable geological foundation made up of the Kaapvaal and Zimbabwe cratons in Southern Africa, together with other large mafic and ultramafic layered intrusions. The Bushveld Complex has been mined for several decades for its high-value ore and plays a key role in the South African economy. The BIC consists of three main geological units, namely the Rooiberg Group, Lebowa Granite Suite and the Rustenburg Layered Suite. The Rustenburg Layered Suite is host to a variety of sub-suites (upper, main, upper critical, lower critical, lower and marginal zones), which comprises igneous intrusive layering, known as stratigraphy, with each layer having distinct mineralogical and geochemical characteristics. The western extremity of the Maseve ore body subcrops 160mbs. The northern boundary is the operational Wesizwe Platinum’s mining right area, and the remainder of the ore body borders RBPlat’s operations. Proximity of the basement (and possibly its palaeotopography) to the Merensky and UG2 reefs influenced the geometry and succession of the local stratigraphy, which primarily resulted from local basement upliftment. Upliftment caused the folded or rolling nature of the stratigraphic geometries which are preserved as anticlines and synclines. The frequency of the rollin ........

Due to the nature of the Merensky reef ore body, the Styldrift I shaft is designed to optimally extract the reef using two different mining methods. These consist of bord and pillar mining by means of trackless mechanised equipment for the flat dipping, stable, wide mineralised areas. Conventional scattered breast mining is currently planned for the more undulating Terrace reef facies towards the western, shallower portions of the ore body.

However, hybrid mining and extra low profile (ELP) methods are under consideration for the Terrace reef facies as RBPlat continually re-evaluates the optimisation of the mining methods to achieve maximum, efficient long-term extraction. Primary development is scheduled to be mined during the next two years to establish an IMS ore reserve block to conduct the trial mining.

Styldrift I shaft is designed to hoist 230ktpm of reef and 20kt of waste at steady state production.

The underground working areas are accessed via a vertical twin shaft system, which comprises a main shaft and services shaft. The shaft system hoisting capacity infrastructure is designed to allow for the possible co- extraction of the UG2 reef in the future.

The main shaft, with a diameter 10.5m sunk to a depth of 758mbs, is used for person, material and rock hoisting. It also serves as an air-intake shaft. The services shaft, with a diameter of 6.5m, is sunk to a depth of 723mbs. The services shaft is used for services, a seco ........

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