RBPlat is located on the Western Limb of the BIC, one of the three main portions or limbs which all comprise similarities in their formation, economic potential and type of commodity. The Bushveld Complex formed approximately 2.04 billion years ago, comprising three main suites, namely the Rooiberg Group, Lebowa Granite Suite and the Rustenburg Layered Suite. The Rustenburg Layered Suite comprises four main zones (the upper, main, critical and lower zones) with each zone characterized by signature igneous intrusive layering, known as stratigraphy. The critical zone hosts the platinum group element (PGE) bearing reef (the economically important layer) types of the Merensky reef and the Upper Group 2 reef (UG2). RBPlat’s operations mines Merensky and UG2 reefs.

The western extremity of the Maseve ore body subcrops 190m below surface. The northern boundry is the operational Wesizwe Platinum’s mining right area, and the remainder of the ore body borders RBPlat operations.

Proximity of the basement (and possibly its paleotopography) to the Merensky and UG2, by and large 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 rolling towards the west becomes narrower with steeper dips resulting in some of the stratigraphic units not developed. The ........

Due to the nature of the Merensky reef ore body, the Styldrift I shaft is designed to optimally extract the reef by 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 and conventional scattered breast mining for the more undulating Terrace reef facies towards the western, shallower portions of the ore body. Although the Terrace reef facies is planned to be mined by hybrid mining methods, RBPlat continually re-evaluates the optimisation of the mining methods to achieve maximum, efficient long-term extraction.

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

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 is designed to allow for the possible future mining of the UG2 reef. 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 second egress and an air intake shaft.

The ore handling and ore breaking philosophy at Styldrift comprises the use of trackless mechanised vehicles and mechanical conveyance installations. Trackless mechanised vehicles include load haul dumpers (L ........

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