Jubilee to deliver first platinum from Hernic plant in February

Leon Coetzer, CEO, Jubilee Platinum

JUBILEE Platinum is on track to start commissioning its Hernic platinum recovery plant in December and then deliver the first platinum concentrates during February in terms of its contractual refining commitments.

That’s according to CEO, Leon Coetzer, answering questions from analysts and shareholders during a webcast presentation held on December 2 from London where Jubilee is listed on the AIM bourse. The company is also listed on the JSE.

The Hernic plant will process more than 1.7 million tons (mt) of platinum group metal (PGM) bearing tailings already processed for the recovery of chrome by the Hernic Ferrochrome plant situated near Brits in North West Province.

Assuming all goes to plan, Jubilee’s Hernic platinum recovery plant will process 85,000t of tailings per month to produce an estimated 3,000 oz of PGMs plus gold per month in concentrate form.

According to Jubilee non-executive chairman, Colin Bird, the Hernic operation will be a game-changer for Jubilee in terms of revenue generation because it was a “very robust project even at current platinum prices”.

Bird added that Hernic was just the start of things to come at Jubilee, although he avoided giving details on possible future developments during the presentation citing regulatory and competition issues.

Bird said Jubilee was already looking at “projects three and four” which would follow on from its first two which were Hernic and the smaller PGM and chrome recovery plant being built at Dilokong Chrome Mines.

Bird commented: “There is so much going on that I would love to share with you, but cannot at this stage. I know what you are thinking – there he goes again with these vague statements – but I would ask you for a bit of tolerance.

“I would ask shareholders to look at where we were in 2015; where we are now in 2016 and where we could be in 2017. Jubilee is one of the few survivors in the platinum junior sector. We will tell you as much as we can once the deals are concluded and safeguarded.”

Turning to the Tjate Platinum project on the Eastern Limb of the platinum-bearing Bushveld Complex, Coetzer said Jubilee had met all the legal and regulatory requirements for the mining right to be granted and that the mining right had been approved by the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR).

However, Jubilee was still waiting for the Tjate mining right to be executed by the Minister of Mineral Resources and then granted to the company.

Coetzer commented: “I have said previously that the granting of the mining right to Jubilee was ‘imminent’ and been criticized for it. I will never use the expression ‘imminent’ again although that is the term that is being used by the DMR concerning the granting of the Tjate mining right”.

Bird added: “The Tjate mining right will come. I have banked it. There has been no attempt to challenge our right to it”.

Jubilee shares rose nearly 5% to R0.67 in trading on the JSE on Friday following the webcast, but the shares are still 21% down on the highs around R0.88 hit in July this year.