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LONDON (Alliance News) - Jubilee Platinum PLC on Monday said it was ramping up production at its Dilokong chrome mine processing project and said it was considering toll processing as an alternative to building its own plant at the site which would mean platinum revenue would be generated "much earlier than planned".
May marked the first full month's operation since the commissioning of a chrome recovery plant on the platinum group mineral-bearing tailings processing project. The project is run by a subsidiary of Jubilee Platinum called Jubilee Tailings Treatment Co Pty Ltd.
Jubilee Platinum, a mine-to-metals specialist, said chromite concentrate production from the Dilokong project reached a total of 15,188 tons for the three months to the end of June, with 7,480 of this being produced in June, and said project revenue generated from chromite concentrate sales in the three months to the end of June was around GBP1.0 million.
The company noted earnings from the project stood at GBP744,000 in the three-month period ended June, of which GBP456,000 was attributable to Jubilee.
Jubilee added that it was considering toll processing as an alternative to building its own plant at the site and is currently considering offers, and said that if an acceptable offer is received there will be "no need to build a plant and platinum revenue will be received much earlier than planned".
In the meantime, the company said it was continuing to increase its revenue from chrome production and source third party feed input.
Meanwhile at its Hernic project, a chrome tailings project, construction of the 55,000 tonnes per month platinum and chromite processing plant is continuing to schedule, Jubilee said, with capital expenditure from the project to date standing at GBP4.6 million, around 45% of the total estimated spend.
Jubilee said commissioning of the platinum recovery plant at the Hernic site is set to commence in December.
"The Dilokong project has outperformed the original design numbers both in terms of revenue, earnings from chromite concentrate sales and better than designed operational performance. To date early project revenue has been generated from the sales of chromite concentrate," said Chief Executive Leon Coetzer.
"The enrichment of the platinum material which is produced by recovering chromite from the surface material and rejecting waste has exceeded our projections due to a better than expected chromite yield from the Dilokong project, without compromising the platinum group minerals metal recovery to the platinum material," Coetzer added.
"The Hernic project, which targets 55,000 tonnes per month of tailing material proceeds on budget and on time to be the world's largest platinum recovery plant from chrome tailings," Coetzer said.
Shares in Jubilee were up 4.0% at 3.28 pence on Monday.
By Hannah Boland; hannahboland@alliancenews.com; @Hannaheboland
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