Jubilee exceeds design capacity at Dilokong chrome recovery plant

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Dual-listed mine-to-metals specialist Jubilee Platinum subsidiary Jubilee Tailings Treatment Company (JTTC) says its chrome recovery plant, which is part of its platinum-group-metals-bearing tailings processing project on Dilokong chrome mine, is outperforming original design numbers, with the project now starting to generate first revenues.

The company reported in a market update on Thursday that the plant’s sustainable feed-rate capacity reaches 65 t/h, exceeding the 50 t/h design capacity by 30%.

Further, short-term feed-rate trials linking to the continued production ramp-up demonstrated the project’s capability to produce chromite at double its design capacity, while increasing the production rate of upgraded platinum tailings.

“The project is consistently exceeding the enrichment targets for platinum, increasing the value of this stream and drawing the interest of a number of established platinum producers looking to accelerate the production of a saleable platinum product," said Jubilee CEO Leon Coetzer. 

The recently commissioned and now fully operational chrome recovery plant had, to date, produced and sold 3 000 t of chromite, achieving about R4.1-million in revenue for Dilokong.

JTTC was targeting the production of 6 000 t of chromite for May 2016, which it increased to 8 000 t for June, against a design target of 4 600 t/m.

Further, the increased processing rates coupled with the maintained processing efficiencies of the plant resulted in a significant increase in the production of platinum-enriched tailings, with platinum values consistently exceeding the designed platinum content by up to 32%. 

JTTC said it had been approached by well-established platinum producers in the region to process the increased platinum stream on Jubilee's behalf to accelerate the beneficiation of the enriched platinum. 

Their plant trials, in this regard, had been successfully concluded and the Jubilee board was evaluating these options to conclude an updated platinum processing strategy by the end of the month, said the company.