Overview
Stage | Preliminary Economic Assessment |
Mine Type | Open Pit |
Commodities |
- Gold
- Platinum
- Copper
- Palladium
- Nickel
|
Mining Method |
|
Production Start | ...  |
Mine Life | 8.7 years (as of Jan 1, 2022) |
Volspruit is divided into two project areas, North and South. The scoping study includes only the NB as the SB results are still being reviewed. The NB comprises 58% of the project area and hence the Scoping Study only includes 58% of the total potential Mineral Resources of the project. Importantly, the Volspruit NB Scoping Study allows for a life of these resources of 8.7 years; hence the US$27.3m pre-tax value ascribed to this project is for this very short period of mining, which the Company feels optimistic will be extended to 15 years or more as MREs are updated in the future.
An updated MRE and Scoping Study is underway to combine the Volspruit North and South Body and to include rhodium. This is anticipated to be completed by Q1 FY2024; |
Source:
p. 11
Contractors
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Summary:
Deposit Type
The Volspruit Reef has provisionally been classified as a disseminated, PGE-Cu-Ni, syn-genetic, ortho-magmatic deposit within the Lower Zone of the RLS. The deposit has been linked to a series of partially developed ultramafic magmas which progressively increase in Cu, Pt, and Pd towards the top of cyclic unit 10 and the first six metres of cyclic unit 11. Hulbert (1983) observed a sharp increase in iron (Fe) and oxygen fugacity (ƒO ) upwards 2 through cyclic units 10 to 11, which led to the conclusion that the Volspruit Reef was formed as a result of a younger more evolved magma intruding the Lower Zone and mixing with the ultramafic unit 10 magmas to provide the means for sulphur saturation and precipitation of PGMs alongside base metals in cyclic unit 11.
Mineralization
The North Body deposit is displaced by a north-south trending fault termed the Magoga Fault, which has thrusted the deposit downwards towards the east. The deposit can be sub-divided into two main structural domains: a northern domain (North Body) and a southern domain (South Body). The northern domain represents a flat-lying and sub-cropping body that is overlain by subsequent cyclic units or regolith. The southern domain is the largest, deepest domain and appears as a graben structure bounded by inward stepping faults along its periphery.
The Volspruit Reef mineralisation is predominantly interstitial disseminated to net-textured sulphide assemblages hosted within olivine and chrome bearin ........

Summary:
The planned mining method for the Volspruit North Project Pit is conventional open-pit mining, using trucks (i.e., combination of rigid and articulated dump trucks) and backhoe (excavators) combinations. Blast hole drilling (i.e., pit vipers and crawler rigs) will take cognisance of geological contacts for grade control purposes as well as appropriate fragmentation. The blast holes will be charged with emulsion explosives. These explosives will be detonated remotely from a safe distance. After blasting, the broken rock will be removed by excavators and loaded onto trucks, which will transport the material to the designated areas.
Mining will be conducted in 10 m benches (minimum flitch size will be 2.5 m, in line with the original Z-height of the parent cell of the grade block model, which equates to the smallest mining unit). Flitches of the waste material may vary between 2.5 m and 10 m for both blasting and loading activities. 120 Tonne (t) excavators with 5.2 m³ bucket size configurations will load 60t dump trucks. The average hauling distance over the life of the project is 2,760 m from the point of loading to the RoM pad and 1,618 m for waste to the Waste Rock Dump (WRD) and In-Pit backfilling.
The pit slopes are guided by the geotechnical recommendations of 45 degrees (°) for the weathered zone of approximately 30 m and 55° pit wall angles for the pyroxenites underlying the weathered zone. The ramps are designed to a maximum gradient of 7% with berms 6 m wide.
Summary:
Steady state mining production is designed and planned to feed the mills with a capacity of 150,000 tonnes per month (ktpm).
The business case is built on delivering and selling concentrate to a third-party smelter approximately 320 km away from the project location.
Recoveries & Grades:
Commodity | Parameter | Avg. LOM |
3E (Pt, Pd, Au)
|
Recovery Rate, %
| 65.7 |
3E (Pt, Pd, Au)
|
Head Grade, g/t
| 2.13 |
3E (Pt, Pd, Au)
|
Concentrate Grade, g/t
| 69.8 |
Copper
|
Recovery Rate, %
| 64.1 |
Copper
|
Head Grade, %
| 0.06 |
Copper
|
Concentrate Grade, %
| 1.97 |
Nickel
|
Recovery Rate, %
| 56.2 |
Nickel
|
Head Grade, %
| 0.17 |
Nickel
|
Concentrate Grade, %
| 4.87 |
Projected Production:
Commodity | Units | Avg. Annual | LOM |
3E (Pt, Pd, Au)
|
koz
| 70 | 704 |
Copper
|
k lbs
| | ......  |
Nickel
|
k lbs
| | ......  |
All production numbers are expressed as metal in concentrate.
Operational Metrics:
Metrics | |
Stripping / waste ratio
| ......  |
Waste tonnes, LOM
| ......  |
Ore tonnes mined, LOM
| ......  |
Tonnes milled, LOM
| ......  |
Annual ore mining rate
| ......  |
* According to 2022 study.
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