Contract miner and shaft-sinker Cementation Mining Skanska has been looking back at a successful five years of large-scale contract platinum mining.

It was in 1998 that Cementation began toll-mining, using trackless mechanized mining methods, at Aquarius Platinum's Kroondal mine.

The arrangement - in which Cementation is paid for the tonnage of ore it mines - has led to Kroondal becoming one of South Africa's most economical pgm-producing ventures.

Important industry players have followed Aquarius's example, the latest being Impala Platinum, which contracted out operations at the Marula platinum mine in Limpopo to Cementation a year ago.

The company's managing director, Alistair Douglas, says the firm moved into contract mining, in addition to its original work of shaft-sinking, mine development, drilling and cementation, in line with the development of the industry:

'The timing of the Kroondal project was fortuitous for us as it came early in the platinum boom', he told Mining Weekly.

'It gave us the opportunity to introduce a new service to the marketplace relatively quickly.'