Breakthrough for Braemore's platinum smelter

Allan Seccombe | Tue, 19 May 2009 12:49

[miningmx.com] -- JUBILEE Platinum has taken the plunge and agreed to deploy smelting technology called ConRoast, which has been proved by Braemore Resources and minerals research group Mintek to be successful in treating platinum concentrate with high chrome content, a problematic issue in the industry.

Traditional smelting technologies used by the major platinum producers battle to cope with high chrome content in concentrate and firms in offtake agreements with the majors are penalised for sending them concentrate outside chrome specifications.

Braemore has run a test smelter at Mintek facilities in Johannesburg for a number of years, achieving recoveries around 99%. It is currently operating a 3.5MW plant, which uses iron to capture PGMs instead of the traditional sulphur.

Braemore is in talks with companies to source material for its planned five to 10 megawatt smelter and associated refinery to handle the iron alloy containing platinum group metals, which is different from the matte produced in the smelters of the major firms.

There has been a fair amount of scepticism around the technology and many people in the platinum industry are taking a wait-and-see approach to it. For major companies to switch to a new technology from the existing processes in which they have invested massive amounts of capital is an enormous ask and they are justifiably cautious.

It’s taken Jubilee to step up and agree to use the technology in its joint venture to treat chrome and PGM tails to produce a high-value concentrate.

“I think the technology is nicely proven and I’ve got no doubts about the technology whatsoever,” said Jubilee CEO Colin Bird.

He sees the future of the platinum mining industry moving towards captive smelting and refining capability. “We like the technology and we feel it’s the next generation smelting,” he told Miningmx.

Braemore CEO Leon Coetzer said the agreement to form a joint venture with Jubilee to deploy the technology was just the first of a number of transactions it is hoping to conclude.

“We have finished our research component and we are accelerating into commercialisation. We are showing the market we are not just talking, this is real,” Coetzer said.

“The point of this deal is because we are offering partnership in the technology and upside on their beneficiation that they’re not being offered anywhere else,” he told Miningmx. “It will add value and make projects payable. This is a good example where the financial economics will be dramatically enhanced.”

The project could be brought on-stream within the next 18 months. The cost could be somewhere around R60m to build a 5MW smelter and associated refinery on the Western Limb where the tailings are situated.

Coetzer said the tailings concentrate as well offtake agreements with some of the major producers for concentrate they cannot effectively process will fill the plant, which could mean annual production of around 150,000 oz of PGMs, depending on the grade.

Bird and Coetzer declined comment on funding, but it’s likely Braemore will announce a funding strategy soon. Some funding for the smelting and refining project might be sourced from those buying the very high-grade platinum concentrate coming out of the refinery.

By toll treating concentrate, juniors normally get paid for about 80% of their metal, while this ConRoast process, including the refining, the returns are forecast to be much higher.

The plan with Jubilee is to ultimately deploy the technology at the as-yet undeveloped Tjate mining project on the Eastern Limb of the Bushveld Igneous Complex. Bird declined to say when the mine could be brought into production, with much depending on the PGM prices as well as exchange rates.

Jubilee will soon release an update resources statement for the project and work is continuing on a feasibility study.