The Mototolo – Der Brochen Complex, is an important part of Anglo American’s PGMs portfolio, located in the eastern limb of the Bushveld Complex, South Africa. It lies within mountainous topography southwest of Burgersfort and west of Lydenburg with elevations varying between 975m and 2,000m above mean sea level.

Mototolo is a mechanised, low-cost, high-quality Platinum Group Metals (PGMs) mine, accessed by two decline shafts; Lebowa in the north and Borwa in the south. Current mining operations are focused on the UG2 Reef with exposures of the Merensky Reef limited to several historic adits over the strike length.

The Merensky and UG2 Reefs are vertically separated by approximately 175m and strike almost north-south over an outcrop length of 11 to 12km, dipping between 10° and 12° in a westerly direction. Continuity to a depth in excess of 2,000m has been established on the western limit of the lease area.

The UG2 Reef is characterised by a single chromitite layer known as the Main Band (averaging 1.18m in thickness) overlain by a poikilitic feldspathic pyroxenite (approximately 1.07m) and a series of narrow chromitite layers. These chromitite layers occurring in the hangingwall of the UG2 have been collectively classified as the ‘Triplets’ with an average thickness of 0.80m. The first triplet, UT1, is normally 2 to 5cm thick followed by UT2, a diffuse chromitite layer that is approximately 10 to 25cm thick with a characteristic pegmatoidal ........

Mototolo complex is a mechanised, trackless, bord-and-pillar underground operation which extracts the UG2 Reef from near outcrop, extending to over 450m below surface. The low profile (LP) underground mining equipment utilised is designed to exploit narrow reef orebodies (>1.8m width) with dip less than 22°. It maximises reef extraction by placing the primary development (main infrastructure) on reef. Access to the orebody is by means of a three-barrel decline system. All the development is done on-reef at an apparent angle of 9°. Strike development provides machine access, rock handling, as well as all the necessary services and infrastructure to the panels. The strike development incorporates one transport drive and one belt drive connected by laterals every 75m. The ledging starts off with developing the panels on strike from the decline cluster, with the ledging layout consisting of 16 panels on the western and eastern sides respectively.

Current mine infrastructure consists of two decline shafts, Lebowa and Borwa, a concentrator and a chromite processing plant. The Der Brochen decline shaft is currently being developed. The ore is extracted from the two shafts and transported by overland conveyor belts to the concentrator.

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