President Cyril Ramaphosa opened Ivanhoe Mines’s long-awaited platinum mine, a quarter-century after exploration began.
The Platreef mine, in northern Limpopo province, started production on Tuesday. It will ramp up annual output to 100 000 ounces of platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold, before targeting 450 000 ounces a year in its second phase from around 2028.
“Today we just have Phase 1, the baby mine,” Ivanhoe’s billionaire founder and co-chairman Robert Friedland said at the opening ceremony, according to a statement issued by his firm on Wednesday. His firm owns 64% of the asset.
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South Africa is the world’s top producer of platinum-group metals, but Platreef’s history illustrates how it often takes decades to transform promising geology into operating mines. The project was first conceived in the 1980s, before Ivanhoe’s subsidiary received a prospecting permit in 2000 and converted that to mining rights in 2014.
Platreef could become one of the biggest players if plans to eventually supply more than 1 million ounces a year are realised. PGM output in South Africa is currently dominated by Valterra Platinum, Sibanye Stillwater and Impala Platinum Holdings.
The new mine came online after platinum and palladium rallied this year, soaring 71% and 54%, respectively, following a protracted market slump.
The auto sector is the largest source of demand for the metals, which are used to reduce harmful emissions from gasoline and diesel vehicles. That consumption is expected to dwindle as electric vehicles gain market share, leaving PGM miners trying to develop alternative uses for their products.
Canada’s Ivanhoe also co-owns one of the world’s biggest copper mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
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