RESOURCES
Eastplats to look at feasibility of mining Crocodile River tailings
A study has shown the tailings have platinum, palladium and rhodium, as well as gold
Toronto-and Johannesburg-listed Eastern Platinum (Eastplats), which has assets around Brits and Steelpoort, is preparing a feasibility study on exploiting the tailings dumps at its Crocodile River Mine near Brits. The treatment of gold and platinum tailings has become increasingly common in SA in recent years as mines are getting deeper and more expensive to mine in an environment of rising electricity prices, labour unrest and government-imposed safety stoppages. As Eastplats’ Crocodile River mine and projects at Kennedy’s Vale, Mareesburg and Spitzkop were suspended several years ago, when platinum prices turned down, the company has no mining production. Eastplats CEO Diana Hu said a recently completed study showed the total mineral resource at the Zandfontein UG2 tailings dump at Crocodile River was about 13.7-million tonnes containing 535,520oz of platinum, palladium and rhodium, with an average grade of 1.218g/tonne. The dump also contained an estimated 3,404oz of gold and 2.8...
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