In the five years since Wesizwe Platinum started building the R10.67bn Bakubung platinum mine near Rustenburg, many things have changed.Platinum prices have fallen, causing investors to flee the sector; rand volatility has increased; and several platinum miners have put new and expansion plans on hold.Wesizwe, unlike many other developing platinum miners, is well funded by a Chinese consortium, but it has still had to tweak its plans to conserve its cash. It is now focused on bringing its main shaft into production by the middle of next year and producing its first saleable material by 2019, which is almost two years earlier than originally planned.To do this, it has changed the sequencing of the mine plan and is deferring some of the noncritical surface infrastructure, such as changehouses and parking lots, to the end of the project timeline.Work on the process plant will start in the middle of next year, allowing two years to build up a stockpile of about 1Mt of ore to coincide wi...
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