The Namakwa ore reserves are contained within and non-reserves material, covers an ellipsoidal area of mineralization 15
kilometers in a northeasterly direction with a maximum width of about 4 km, with no overburden. The NE-SW dimension is interpreted
to reflect prevailing winds at the time of the deposit’s formation. A narrow sub-economic corridor divides the reserves into two proximal ore bodies, Graauwduinen West and Graauwduinen East, which are more commonly called the “West” and “East” deposits. Nearly two-thirds of historic ore production has been extracted from the West mine pit, to a maximum depth of about 45 meters. In the medium term, 60-65% of
extracted ore will be mined from the West pit, but the long-term LOM Plan calls for a nearly even split between West and East mines.

The very large Namakwa HM deposit is broadly the result of prolonged, repetitive weathering-erosion-deposition cycles that were initiated with the breakup of the Gondwana Supercontinent approximately 100 million years ago. The separation of the African and South American proto-continents triggered weathering and erosion of massive volumes of sediment from high-grade metamorphic crystalline “basement” rocks of the one billion-year-old Namaqua-Natal orogenic belt. The sandy sedimentary sequence that hosts our Namakwa HM deposit is interpreted as being derived mostly from the Namaqua-Natal metamorphic belt which was welded onto the western and southern margins of the 2.6+ billion-year-old Kaapvaal Craton. High grade metamorphism facilitates the partitioning of titanium into ilmenite and rutile crystals making them available for erosion, transport and deposition to form economic deposits. Heavy mineral concentrations in beach placers, marine terraces and in coastal dunes were reworked by water and wind into what is now our Namakwa heavy mineral deposit, the end-product of 100 million years of geologic evolution.

The Namakwa Sands world-class heavy mineral deposit at Brand-se-Baai is approximately 385 km north of Cape Town and 92 km northwest of Vrendendal. Ore is mined from two open pit dry mines by a combination of loaders, hydraulic shovels and conveyors.

Namakwa Sands does not use blasting in its operations. The mined material is transported by trucks to the mineral sizers where primary reduction takes place.

Concentrates from two dedicated Primary Concentration Plants (PCP West and PCP East) are blended to feed a common Secondary Concentration Plant (SCP) for production of magnetic and non-magnetic HMC. Both mag and n/m concentrates are truck-hauled 52 km to the Mineral Separation Plant at Koekenaap, from which commercial concentrates of zircon, rutile and ilmenite smelter feed are transported by rail about 300 km south to Saldanha. The Saldanha smelter, 105 km north of Cape Town, converts ilmenite concentrates from the northern mining-processing operation to titanium slag and high-purity pig iron in two DC electric arc furnaces. We own product storage and loading facilities at the Saldanha Bay deepwater port.

Heavy mineral concentrate from the Fairbreeze mine, located about 45 km south of Richards Bay, are separated into valuable co-products at our Central Processing Complex (CPC) at Empangeni, about 20 km west of Richards Bay. llmenite is fed to a dual-furnace electric arc smelter. Titanium slag and pig iron from the smelter and valuable mineral concentrates are exported from Richards Bay, one of the world’s largest bulk shipping ports.

Processing - Both wet and dry mining techniques utilize wet concentrator plants to produce a high grade of heavy mineral concentrate (typically approximately 90% to 98% heavy mineral content). Screened ore is first deslimed, a process by which slimes are separated from larger particles of minerals, and then washed through a series of spiral separators that use gravity to separate the heavy mineral sands from lighter materials, such as quartz. Residue from the concentration process is pumped back into either the open pits or slimes dams for rehabilitation and water recovery. Water used in the process is recycled into a clean water dam with any additional water requirements made up from pit dewatering or rainfall.

Mineral Separation - The non-magnetic (zircon and rutile) and magnetic (ilmenite) concentrates are passed through a dry separation process, known as the “dry mill” to separate out the minerals. Electrostatic and dry magnetic methods are used to further separate the ilmenite, rutile and zircon. Electrostatic separation relies on the difference in surface conductivity of the materials to be separated. Conductive minerals (such as ilmenite, rutile and leucoxene) behave differently from non-conductive minerals (such as zircon) when subjected to electrical forces. Magnetic separation techniques are dependent on the iron content of a mineral. Magnetic minerals (such as ilmenite) will separate from non-magnetic minerals (such as rutile and leucoxene) when subjected to a magnetic field. A combination of gravity and magnetic separation is used to separate zircon from the non-magnetic portion of the heavy mineral concentrate. The heavy mineral concentrate at KZN Sands and Namakwa Sands is passed through wet high-intensity magnetic separation to produce a non-magnetic fraction and a magnetic fraction.