Platreef Project

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Platreef is a world class teir 1 Platinum Group Metals (PGM) discovery which has the potential to the be largest and lowest cost PGM producer in South Africa. The project is located at the community of Mokopane, and South of Mogalakwena Platinum Mine on the Eastern Limb of the Bushveld Complex on three farms: Turfspruit 241 KR (3,561 ha), Macalacaskop 243 KR (4,281 ha) and Rietfontein 2 KS (2,878 ha). The main feature of the project is the Platreef which is a thicker occurance of the Merensky reef, and it contains the flatreef deposit. The Flatreef Deposit has a currently defined strike length of six km and mostly lies within a flat to gently dipping portion of the Platreef, with depths ranging from approximately 700 to 1,100 meters below surface.

Platreef was initially explored in the 1960's by Anglo American Platinum and subsequently Rustenburg Plantinum Mines explored in the 1970's. In February 1998 Ivanhoe acquired a prospecting licence Rietfontein 2 KS farm in 2001. The JV agreement was updated in 2009.for both Turfspruit 241 KR and Macalacaskop 243 KR farms, then entered into a joint venture with Atlatsa for. Ivanhoe commenced deep drilling programs starting in 2007 to determine continuity and grade, and the entire drilling program became the largest length of drilling in meters of any project so far in Africa.

As of March 2018 the ownership structure of the project is Ivanplats Holding Sàrl: 66%, K2014089596 (South Africa) (RF) Proprietary Limited, (“BEE Co”): 26%, and ITC Platinum Development Limited: 8%. The ownership structure of Ivanplats Holding Sarl is Ivanhoe Mines Limited: 97.3% of total shares in issue and Itochu Corporation: 2.7% of total shares in issue. The ownership of K2014089596 (South Africa) (RF) Proprietary Limited, the current Black Economic Empowerment partner, is K2014043822 (South Africa) (RF) Proprietary Limited (“Community Trust Co”): 76.92%, K2014043829 (South Africa) (RF) Proprietary Limited (“Employee Trust Co”): 11.54%, and K2014043815 (South Africa) (RF) Proprietary Limited (“Entrepreneur Co”): 11.54%.

The Community Trust Co is 100% owned by the Platreef Communities Umbrella Trust which was created to the benefit of the members of the 20 communities/villages that form the general Mokopane Community. Employee Trust Co is 100% owned by the Platreef Equity Participation Trust which was created for the benefit of historically disadvantaged and non-managerial employees of Ivanplats. The shares in Entrepreneur Co are held by a consortium of historically disadvantaged entrepreneurs residing in and around Mokopane, where the mine is situated, and historically disadvantaged senior managerial employees of Ivanplats.

Regionally, the Platreef Project is hosted within the Palaeoproterozoic (2.06 Ga) Bushveld Igneous Complex (BIC) which is the largest of the known layered igneous intrusions, covering an area > 65,000 km². The BIC hosts up to 75% of the world’s platinum resources. The BIC includes an early bimodal volcanic sequence called the Rooiberg Group that is followed by an intrusive layered series of ultramafic and mafic units known as the Rustenburg Layered Suite (RLS) and the Lebowa Granite and Rashoop Granophyre Suites. The RLS is 7 to 8 km thick and ranges in composition from dunite to diorite. Hall (1932) divided the RLS into 5 zones in decending order:

- Upper Zone (UZ): Gabbroic succession.

- Main Zone (MZ): A succession of gabbronorites with occasional anorthosite and pyroxenite bands.

- Critical Zone (CZ): The Lower Critical Zone (LCZ) consists of orthopyroxenitic cumulates, and the Upper Critical Zone (UCZ) comprises packages of chromitite, harzburgite, pyroxenite, norite, and anorthosite. The CZ hosts PGE–Au–Ni–Cu and chromite deposits in several different chromitite layers known as reefs. The most significant are the Merensky Reef and the Upper Group 2 (UG2) Reef of the Eastern and Western Limbs. These range on average from 0.4–1.5 m in thickness and the contained PGE (Pt, Pd, Rh, Au) content typically ranges from 4–10 g/t.

- Lower Zone (LZ): Upper and lower peridotites separated by a central harzburgite.

- Marginal Zone (MZN): Norites with variable proportions of accessory clinopyroxene, quartz, biotite and hornblende, indicating magma contamination from the underlying metasediments. This unit is not always present.

In the East and West Limbs of the BIC, the RLS was intruded into the Magaliesberg Formation of the Proterozoic Transvaal Supergroup. In the North Limb, the RLS intrudes progressively older country rocks northward (Magaliesberg Formation, Malmani Subgroup and Duitschland Formation). In the East and West Limbs of the BIC, the CZ includes the Merensky Reef and UG2 chromitite that are exploited for PGE mineralisation. In the North Limb of the BIC, the mineralised horizons have been referred to as the Platreef.