Thabazimbi mine is located in the Limpopo province close to the town of Thabazimbi.

The iron ore at the Thabazimbi Mine consists of high-grade haematite (Fe2O3) which occurs in the basal parts of the Penge Formation and is underlain by the chert-poor dolomite of the Frisco Formation.

The Penge formation is usually in conformable contact with the underlying Malmani Subgroup and is composed mainly of gruneritic-banded chert with interbedded carbonaceous shale. However, at the Thabazimbi Mine the chert-rich basal part of the Penge Formation is missing. The basal unit of the Penge Formation therefore unconformably overlies the Malmani Subgroup and is most likely due to normal faulting in the Thabazimbi area.

Ore genesis is of a chemical nature, where secondary Haematite replaced chert within the BIF. Later stages of ferruginisation followed to produce high-grade laminated to brecciated iron ore. The occurrence of iron ore is structurally controlled, with faults serving firstly as conduits for iron-rich fluids and later as mechanisms for displacing (and/or duplicating) ore zones.

Local collapse structures within the underlying dolomites produced brecciated zones within the BIF, which were then filled by iron-rich fluids. A regional network of diabase sills and dykes served as trapping mechanisms for mineralising fluids in the lower section of the BIF, which resulted in an enriched lower section and a less-enriched upper section of the P ........

Thabazimbi mine in its later years extracted iron ore via conventional opencast mining methods of drilling and blasting followed by loading and hauling via a truck and shovel fleet. Mining in 2015 was conducted in three pits that are geographically separated from one another.

Open-pit mining was stopped on 30 September 2015 and only existing stockpiled RoM material will be fed to the beneficiation plant.

In 2021 a pre-feasibility study on restarting mining operations in Thabazimbi was approved and a feasibility study prepared. This feasibility study was submitted to ArcelorMittal group’s investment allocation committee in March 2022. The submission seeks approval for a budget of some R40 million,
for an approximately 18-month study.

Options being explored are for a 3 million tonne-per-annum opencast run-of-mine (Mtpa ROM) or a 5Mtpa ROM operation. Should it be decided to restart operations, we believe that mining operations could commence in 2026. A 5Mtpa ROM mine would be able to supply more than 80% of our iron ore requirement over a 20-year life of mine, sustaining some 400 jobs.

The Thabazimbi Iron Ore Mine was taken over by ArcelorMittal South Africa in 2018, and commenced dry screening of a calcite hematite stockpile in September 2019 in order to recover fine iron ore (-8mm) for use at its Vanderbijlpark Works. The screened material is quality controlled in order to ensure suitability of use in conjunction with its other fine iron ore sources.

Thabazimbi Iron Ore Mine currently processes existing stockpiles of iron ore from a run of mine nature (unbeneficiated) and old plant discard dumps with recoverable iron, with the aim to supply product to the Vanderbijlpark Steel Works.