Platinum giant spells out growth plans for Unki

company has revised its project pipeline to bring shallower, lower-cost ounces into production sooner as it grapples with a start to the year that has been afflicted by low productivity and rising costs.
Amplats chief executive Mr Neville Nicolau recently spelt out future expansion plans for the Zimbabwe-based operation.
He said this during the presentation of the group’s interim results earlier this week.
Mr Nicolau said the Unki Mine is a priority for Amplats after which, over the next five to 10 years, the group would develop its largely untouched assets on the Eastern Limb of the platinum-bearing Bushveld Complex.
The US$450 million Unki Mine, based in Shurugwi, was commissioned earlier this year, and at full tilt is expected to produce 65 000 ounces of refined platinum.
Zimbabwe has the second largest deposits of platinum ore in the world. Only South Africa has larger proven reserves of platinum group metals. This means that Unki has the potential to become Anglo-American’s largest source of the mineral in the future. Unki is set to become Zimbabwe’s third largest platinum mine behind the local operations of Anglo rival Impala Platinum (Implats).
Implats owns the Selous-based Zimbabwe Platinum Holdings (Zimplats) complex and has a 50 percent interest in the Zvishavane-based Mimosa Platinum Mine.
Impala is implementing a US$500 million expansion programme at Zimplats which will see output increase from the current 96 000 ounces to about 270 000 ounces by 2014.
It is anticipated that over time and with increased investment, the Zimplats project has the capacity to produce around one million ounces of platinum on an annual basis.
Mimosa also plans to ramp up production to the mine’s 200 000 ounce design capacity.
Unki is important to Amplats because it is a low-cost operation, which is also a critical feature of the country’s general platinum production milieu.
Zimbabwe’s platinum deposits are typically shallow compared to the deep-level deposits in South Africa, for instance, which means the cost of mining platinum in this country is far cheaper than in other countries where the deposits are found.
The Amplats CEO reiterated that the group’s future production would be sourced as far as possible from its lowest cost operations as the group strives to keep the bulk of its production in the lower half of the industry cost curve.
Mr Nicolau added that Unki should be able to hit full output before the third quarter of 2013 but said they would only be able to give clearer guidance on this later this year.