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 implication of the folding and or rolling nature of the stratigraphy results in opposite dip directions (westerly and easterly) with wide ranges of dip-regimes that exist. The aforementioned is contrary to traditional narrow tabular Merensky and UG2 stratigraphy with recognized local changes in the planarity of the ore bodies, which are mostly related to the different fancies types.

The Merensky and UG2 reefs are both sulphide enriched with the Merensky reef being the main economic horizon mined at RBPlat. The PGMs (platinum (Pt), palladium (Pd), rhodium (RH), osmium (Os), ruthenium (Ru)) as well as gold (Au) are found mostly within the sulphide minerals and include varieties of copper (Cu) and nickel (Ni) as accompanying base metals. The reef horizons dip towards the north-eastern direction between 50 and 120 . The steeper dips are in the north-eastern part of the Styldrift, with the shallower dips presents in the center and western of the farm.

The average depth of the Merensky reef is 505 metres below surface (mbs), with RBPlat having the advantage of being the Merensky reef dominant relatively mine. The newly operational Styldrift I shaft ore from a 50 dipping Merensky reef horizon at an average depth of 712mbs.

The Merensky reef across the RBPlat operational area comprises six different geological facies types, from west to east, namely the Abutment, Terrace, Central, Normal, Normal Thick and Main reef facies. Merensky reef facies delineation of the Maseve ore body ties in with the regional RBPl at Merensky reef facies; Abutment facies (divided into shallow Abutment, deep Abutment and transition to Terrace facies) on the most western side and Terrace facies further east towards the Styldrift I shaft area. Each facies type exhibits unique geological, geochemical and mineralization characteristics which has a fundamental role in planning the optimized mining method. The predominant facies type at Maseve Mine is the Abutment facies, which is commonly associated with intrusions.

The vertical separation between the Merensky and the UG2 reefs varies from an average 80m at BRPM to 50m around the Styldrift I shaft area and decreases to an estimated minimum of 25m in the far north-eastern region of the mining area (Styldrift II). This is due the overall thinning of the critical zone of the Bushveld Complex, in a north-eastern direction towards the Pilanesberg Complex. The UG2 ore body has been classified and subdivided into three main facies types based on the occurrence of the position of the leader UG2 chromitite bands in the hangingwall of the dominant mineralized main chromitite band. These facies variations are encountered on apparent dip in a north- eastern direction, ranging from the Central high facies, Leader facies and General facies, from the shallowest to deepest portions of the mining area. The predominant facies types are the Leader and General facies, which account for 85% of the total ore body.

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 transport and for initiating raise development. The lower drive is equipped with a conveyor belt which transports the ore back to the conveyor decline.

The ore from the stope panels is scraped down the raise, into a muckbay from where a LHD loads and delivers the ore to the conveyor belt in the lower drive. The use of the hybrid method affords flexibility in reaching areas below the 11 and 15 levels which would not have been mined with a conventional mining layout, thus achieving a greater total orebody extraction.

The BRPM concentrator, was designed to receive Merensky ore from BRPM’s two decline shafts and is able to treat 10% of UG2. The original design capacity of 200ktpm, was upgraded to 250ktpm to accommodate production from Styldrift.

The concentrator can be described as a robust maintenance intensive environment which produces 2.7 tonnes of saleable product from every 100 tonnes of ore processed

The plant operates on a 24 hours, 365 days a year basis and follows a traditional Mill- Float, Mill-Float (MF2) process which includes a conventional three stage crushing process prior to milling and flotation. The flotation processes produce a platinum rich PGM concentrate which is collected and sold as a final product for further processing and refining. RBPlat has an offtake agreement with Rustenburg Refineries (owned by Anglo American Platinum) for the sale of RBPlat concentrate.