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 ........

The extraction is divided into two mining areas by a northeast — southwest trending fault. The northern (BRPM North shaft) and southern (BRPM South shaft) areas are both accessed and serviced by a decline shaft complex, consisting of a conveyor decline, a material decline and a chairlift decline, and vertical up-cast ventilation shafts.

Sinking of North and South shaft declines started in 1998, providing access to the shallow dipping, narrow reef ore bodies, which sub-outcrops and extends to approximately 430mbs at South shaft and 635mbs at North shaft.Production commenced with open-cast mining of the Merensky and UG2 reefs to a depth of +/- 30mbs. UG2 mining is replacing the Merensky using the same infrastructure, with South shaft becoming a UG2 reef mine at the end of 2022. The deeper section at North shaft Phase III is an extension of the Merensky mining.

Two mining methods are being employed at BRPM, namely conventional and hybrid mining. The hybrid mining method employs conventional stoping methods, but replaces footwall development infrastructure and rail transport with on-reef conveyor and roadway drives and a combination of load haul dumper (LHD) and conveyor transport of ore to the main decline ore passes. Material is transported by utility vehicles (UV).

The decline system is connected to the reef horizon by means of an access drive. On the reef horizon two drives are developed on strike. The upper drive is used for material transpo ........

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