Independence Platinum has announced that it has begun continuous smelting operations at Mintek's smelter in Johannesburg.

The move represents a major step forward for the company and also brings its parent company, Braemore Resources, into the South African platinum group metal (pgm) sector.

However, the major significance of the operation for the pgm industry as a whole is the fact that Independence is using Mintek's ConRoast smelting technology.

The ConRoast technology has been considered as a potential major breakthrough in the smelting process because it is thought that it can easily cope with the high chrome content contained in UG2 pgm ore, making the smelting process more efficient.

Independence Platinum has exclusive rights to the commercial development and exploitation of the ConRoast process and the platinum mining industry will be keen to discover whether the new technology proves successful.

The smelter will tap the first pgm alloy this week and will produce 30,000 oz of pgms at the test facility, Braemore Resources has confirmed.

Source:

Braemore to produce first pgms from smelting concentrates at Mintek, 25/09/07
http://www.braemoreresources.com/pdfs/BRR_25_09_07.pdf

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