Sylvania Platinum has submitted its mining rights application for its Volspruit platinum project in the northern limb of South Africa's Bushveld Complex.

The Department of Mineral Resources is expected to give its decision next year on the plans, which include the building of a mine and concentrator, as well as a smelter and refinery project.

An environmental scoping plan will also be submitted as part of the application.

In a statement, Sylvania said the Volspruit Mine has a "massive" ore body located at the southern end of the northern limb of the Bushveld Complex, containing both platinum group metals and base metals accessible by open pit.

The smelter and refinery project, which is a joint venture with Jubilee Platinum, will be built at the mine site and "will allow the whole project to complete an ore to metal production line", according to Sylvania.

Volspruit will comprise two open pit mines with combined production of 300,000 t/m ore, feeding into three modular floatation plants, each with a 100,000 t/m run-of-mine capacity.

"The ability to proceed with the project now depends on the granting of the mining right, as well as the approval for the environmental management plan. A decision on both these submissions is due during 2012," Sylvania said.

Source:

Sylvania applies for Limpopo platinum licence (29/09/11) 

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