Western Bushveld Joint Venture

 mine, platinum mine/processing

The Western Bushveld Joint Venture comprises 3 projects (mines) and are referred to as Project 1, Project 2, and Project 3. Project 2 became the Bakubung Platinum Mine and Project 1 became known as Maseve. Construction of the mine began in May 2011 with final commissioning and testing of the mill completed in March 2016. Mining methods include conventional hand held drilling utilizing electrical drills and scrapers as well as winch cleaning similar to the successful conventional mining operations at the adjacent mines. Project 1 has 22+ life of mine on the Merensky and UG2 Reefs.

The original ownership that formed the Great Western Bushveld Joint Venture (WBJV) were Platinum Group Metals (PGM) 37%, Anglo American Platinum (Rustenburg Platinum Mines Ltd) 37%, and Wesizwe Platinum 26%. PGM was the operator. The partners then agreed to restructure the ownership. Anglo would exit the project and the new ownership would be PGM 74% and Wesizwe 26%.

Further terms to the agreement were that PGM will acquire ownership of 74% of WBJV Projects 1 and 3 and Wesizwe will acquire 100% of Project 2 (Bakubung), and 26% of Projects 1 and 3. In 2008 PGM Incorportated Maseve Investments 11 (Pty) Ltd.as a subsidiary to act as the operating company for WMJV project 1 (Maseve) and 3. PGM holds 82.9% stake in Maseve Investments 11 and the remaining 17.1% is owned by Wesizwe Platinum through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Africa Wide Mineral Prospecting and Exploration.

The Project 1 Platinum Mine started construction in May of 2011. The mining and development plan includes conventional hand held drilling utilizing electrical drills and scrapers as well as winch cleaning similar to the successful conventional mining operations at the adjacent mines. Final commissioning and testing of the mill was completed in March 2016. The Merensky Reef will be mined at widths between 93cm and 176cm and an average of 115cm. The UG2 Reef will be mined at widths between 105cm and 205cm and an average of 153cm.

Regionally the project is located on the western limb of the Bushveld Ingeous Complex (BIC). The BIC was intruded about 2,060 million years ago into rocks of the Transvaal Supergroup along an unconformity between the Magaliesberg quartzites (Pretoria Group) and the overlying Rooiberg felsites (a dominantly felsic volcanic precursor). The BIC is one the largest mafic/ultramafic layered intrusions in the world, covering an extent exceeding 66,000km2 and a maximum thickness of 8km. It compromises the largest known Platinum Group Metals resource in the world. The mafic component of the BIC hosts layers rich in PGE’s, nickel, copper, chromium and vanadium.

Locally the project is underlain by the lower portion of the Rustenburg Layered Suite (RLS), mainly the Critical Zone and the lower portion of the Main Zone. The ultramafic Lower Critical Zone and the Mafic Upper Critical Zone and the Main Zone weather to dark, black clays with very little topography. The underlying Transvaal Supergroup is comprised of shale and quartzite of the Magaliesberg Formation, which creates a more undulating topography.

The Merensky and UG2 Reefs outcrop beneath a relatively thick (2-5m) overburden of red Hutton to darker Swartland soil forms. The sequence strikes northwest to southeast and dips between 4° and 42° with an average of 14° in the Project 1 and 1A areas. The top 32m of rock formation below the soil column is characterized by a highly weathered rock profile (regolith) consisting mostly of gabbro within the Main Zone. Thicknesses of this profile increase near intrusive dykes traversing the area.