Jubilee Platinum has commissioned a third ARC furnace at its Middelburg smelter operations in South Africa.
The commissioning of the third furnace marks the final phase of the four-phase renewal programme at the Middelburg Smelter.
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Jubilee is targeting the first hot metal load by 17 April, after the completion of the electrical and control solution validation and the cold mechanical testing of the operations.
The smelter operation, with a fully contracted smelter capacity of 13,800t of metal per year, is anticipated to sustain revenue growth for the company, supported by an increase to a targeted 38% in gross profit margins, which, in turn, may deliver positive smelter earnings, with a net margin of 12% targeted by Jubilee.
Jubilee said the increased smelting capacity is backed by the newly secured FeSi and FeNi toll smelting contracts.
The new FeNi contract offers a 17% increase in the revenue per tonne of FeNi metal produced at the targeted metal production of 9,600t per year compared with existing production level of 6,240t per annum under the current FeNi toll contract.
Jubilee Platinum CEO Leon Coetzer said: "Our focus now intensifies in line with our stated company strategy of bringing into production our access to platinum-containing surface material, ultimately to migrate our smelter operations onto processing platinum concentrates."
The company has also submitted the scoping report to the South Africa’s Department of Mineral Resources for the mining right application of its targeted 70 million ounce Tjate platinum mining project, located in the eastern area of the Bushveld Complex.
The property covers 5,140ha on three farms and the area has been independently estimated to contain 65 million ounces of platinum group elements and gold.
Image: The commissioning of the third ARC furnace marks the final phase of the four-phase renewal programme implemented by Jubilee. Photo: courtesy of Jubilee Platinum.
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