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 sme ........