RBPlat R11bn Styldrift I project hit by delay

[miningmx.com] – ROYAL Bafokeng Platinum (RBPlat) said its R11bn Styldrift I project would be delayed about six months owing to constraints caused by its services shaft, poor ground conditions, and an accident in July.

The capital cost of the project, which will produce 300,000 ounces/year of platinum group metals 4E, will remain at R11bn with the cost of the delay serviced out of savings and contingencies, the company said in an announcement today.

The term 4E relates to the presence of platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold in the mine’s production mix.

RBPlat was commenting in the publication of its third quarter production results in which platinum 4E ounces-in-concentrate totaled 80,400 oz, a 23% increase year-on-year.

The production improvement was related to some 15 days of production that were lost in the third quarter of 2013 when RBPlat had to replace parts of the mill which resulted in concentrator downtime.

However, cost per tonne milled and cost per platinum ounce for the quarter were 4% lower compared to the first half of 2014, the company said.

The main shaft of Styldrfit I was now due to be commissioned in the second half of its 2015 financial year with ramp-up of the mine scheduled for the first quarter of 2016 compared to the third quarter of 2015 previously.

The delay in production would be ameliorated, however, by additional Merensky and UG2 output from the South Shaft in 2018 which would deliver 120,000 oz.

RBPlat said the services hoisting shaft, which provides logistical support for underground development and construction work at Styldrift including the transport of people, had been identified as a constraint to the project.

“Detailed technical analysis has highlighted that this constraint will effectively limit the development of key infrastructure required for the commissioning of the Main shaft and the start of production ramp-up,” said RBPlat.

“The project is currently 78 days behind schedule on the critical path, of which 52 days were lost during the third quarter of 2014,” it said. Some 26 days had been lost owing to the services shaft constraints at the end of the 2014 half year.

In addition to the services shaft, poor ground conditions in the Main shaft loading box area required extensive support. A production delay was also suffered following an investigation into an accident in which an acetylene bottle fell down the services shaft.

“As a result of the later commissioning of the Main shaft and start of production ramp-up, steady state will now be achieved in the first quarter of 2019,” it said.

Committed capital totalled R4.35bn on the Styldrift project with expenditure incurred of some R3.4bn as of the end of the third quarter. The project is 48.2% complete, which is 3.6% behind the current plan of 51.8%, RBPlat said.

There were no delays with a project to replace mined ounces at RBPlat’s operating mine, the Bafokeng Rasimone Platinum Mine (BRPM).

The project remains below budget, with expenditure for the quarter amounting to R55.3m in the third quarter and some R722.6m for the project to date.