Lonmin Platinum, South Africa's third largest producer of the metal, is speeding up the rate of extraction in a bid to close the gap with its competitors.

New opencast mines and two vertical shafts at Rustenburg will be commissioned over two years from 2004.

The open cast mines are situated along Lonmin's new road between Eastern Platinum and the new vertical K4 shaft at Karee mine, which is scheduled for commission in December 2006.

The open cast project, which cost R556 million, should provide between 115,000 and 120,000 extra ounces of platinum annually.

Lonmin Platinum intends milling some 1.2 million t/m from seven different concentrator plants, five of them Upper Group Two (UG2) plants, one a Merensky plant and one a mixed plant.

However, according to Mining Weekly, the firm says the market depends on additional supplies being made to prevent a serious price increase.

Consequently Lonmin is mining more than it is milling to increase the size of its stockpiles in order to provide consistency and stability.