Impala Platinum Mine Metallurgy Division

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Current smelter capacity is 2.8 million ounces of platinum.

METALLURGY

Mineral Processes houses the concentrator and smelter operations and is located on the mine property in Rustenburg. The concentrator, consists of 30 run-of-mine semi-autogeneous mills.

The smelter currently operates three six-inline AC electric furnaces ranging from 32 to 38MV. Impala is committed to maintaining a leading edge in its metallurgical operations and significant capital expenditure programmes have been undertaken to ensure sufficient capacity to meet the Group’s growth strategy. The R1 billion smelter expansion was completed in February 2009 with the commissioning of the gas-cleaning plant. In addition to increasing overall capacity to 2.8 million ounces of platinum, the plant is now fully compliant with the latest environmental legislation. The expansion to the tails retreatment plant, which involved a doubling of capacity, was also completed and will improve overall recoveries by around 0.5% in FY2010.

A phased expansion in capacity has also been undertaken at Impala’s refineries in Springs. The Phase II expansion at the Base Metals Refinery (BMR) to 2.3 million ounces of platinum, which matches installed capacity at the Precious Metals Refinery (PMR), is scheduled for completion in 2010. The bankable feasibility study for the Phase IV expansion of the PMR to 2.8 million ounces of platinum has been completed. However, due to the prevailing difficult economic conditions, it was considered prudent to place the expansion on hold. However, this expansion is of a modular nature and is able to be quickly activated when market conditions warrant.

Reference for information:
www.implats.co.za/implats/downloads/2010/fact%20sheets/...