South Africa needs five new processing plants to keep up with the increased production of platinum in the country, it has been claimed.

Business Report has revealed that Hamish Bohannan, the Chief Executive of Braemore, has called for the increased processing capacity in order to support the "tidal wave" of new platinum projects that have sprung up in South African over recent times.

"There is not enough smelting capacity out there," he explained.

Mr Bohannan added that the five new plants would require an investment of R9 billion, but also suggested that the current infrastructure is now so old that it is not designed to cope with the modern demands placed upon it.

He suggested that the existing processing plants were mostly built around 30 years ago and as such were meant to deal with production at the Merensky reef rather than the other main platinum reef, UG2.

Source:

Five processing plants needed to meet refining, smelting capacity, 16/07/07
http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=566&fArticleId=3935516

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