Platmin is hoping to produce 12,000 oz of pgms per month at its Pilanesberg Platinum Mine by December 2010, it emerged yesterday (12th August).

The company revealed that sales and dispatches for July reached 6,375 oz pgm 3E (platinum, palladium and rhodium) plus gold, which was impressive in comparison to the Q2 total of 10,548 oz.

However, Chief Executive Tom Dale announced that a target of 80,000 oz for the 2010 financial year has been set, with a planned annualised output of 144,000 oz being reached by the end of the calendar year.

Although this represents a decline from a previous estimate of 120,000 oz for 2010, the firm is still aiming to dispatch and sell 200,000 oz during the following year.

Mr Dale said: "We strengthened the team further during the second quarter, specifically in mineral resource management and planning.

"We continue to make sound decisions for long-term production and these will begin to show results during the second half of the year."

The latest Platmin figures also showed that 551,673 tonnes of ore were delivered to the run-of-mine pads in the second quarter, with ore milled totalling 608,182 tonnes.

According to the company, a number of short-term issues affected its performance during the three-month period, such as unseasonal high rainfall in April.

In addition, concentrate deliveries were impacted for a month following damage to the precipitator at Northam Platinum's metallurgical plant, while the Merensky mill was closed in June to re-build the pinion foundation.

Platmin is based in Canada but its main interest, Pilanesberg, is located on the western limb of the platinum-rich Bushveld Complex in South Africa.

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Production build-up continues at Platmin's Pilanesberg Platinum Mine (12/08/10) 

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