Platmin announced yesterday (4th June) that the second phase of powering up its Pilanesberg platinum mine has been successfully completed.

South African state power utility supplier Eskom has fulfilled its original agreement to allow the company to produce 37MVA at the Bushveld Complex western limb site.

Commenting on the news, Platmin Chief Executive Officer Ian Watson expressed his satisfaction at being able to commence the company's concentrator plant at the Merensky reef.

He said: "With Phase 2 and the 37MVA allocation now being available, we are pleased to be able to start up the Merensky concentrator plant later this week.

"This is an important milestone for the company and is also testimony to the excellent relationship between our engineers and those of Eskom."

Mr Watson added that the Platmin will now be able to "confidently continue to ramp up the metallurgical operations to their design capacity".

The 15MVA first phase of the project was connected in March 2009 with the intention of facilitating the commissioning of the UG2 metallurgical plant, which has been running at full design tonnage capacity since April.

Source:

Pilanesberg platinum mine receives full power allocation in time for Merensky plant start-up (04/06/09)

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