Jubilee Platinum is to announce a deal that will give it early production of feed for a chrome-rich platinum concentrate furnace.

According to Business Day, the company has been looking for supplies of its own concentrate to feed into the five-megawatt ConRoast refinery it is building at Middelburg in Mpumalanga.

An iron and nickel alloy containing a high concentration of platinum group metals (pgms) will be produced by the furnace, which is due to be completed by the end of the 2011.

It comes after Jubilee acquired Braemore Resources plc, which holds an exclusive licence to the ConRoast process for the smelting of high chrome-bearing pgm concentrates.

Jubilee wants 40 per cent of the capacity of the plant to be supplied with its own concentrate within 24 months of commissioning, the firm's chief executive officer Leon Coetzer told Business Day.

He added: "Jubilee is trading under a cautionary notice because we are close to concluding, if not concluded already, a transaction that will bring Jubilee to a position to produce its own platinum concentrate in the very near term."

Jubilee's prime asset in South Africa is the Tjate Platinum project, in which it has a 63 per cent beneficial interest.

The project's exploration area has been independently estimated to be a target for potentially 65 million ounces of platinum group elements and gold, net of geological losses.

Business Day reports Jubilee will submit an application for a mine at the project this May, though it will be over five years before this is constructed.

The firm could bring in a strategic partner for this, the news provider explained.

"We could even potentially dilute our position in Tjate as we grow value in it," Mr Coetzer said.

Additionally, the company has entered into a memorandum of understanding with Northam Platinum to evaluate the possibility of jointly providing a dedicated ConRoast facility with add-on refining capability for its Booysendal project.

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Jubilee deal to supply feed for furnace (31/03/11) 

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