Jubilee Platinum’s commissioning of the third ARC furnace at its Middelburg smelter operations, in Mpumalanga, this month has marked the final phase of its four-phase, two-year renewal programme.

The mine-to-metals specialist plans to target the first hot metal load by April 17, after the successful completion of the electrical and control solution validation and the cold mechanical testing of the operations, among others.

“This phase of our smelter operation’s renewal programme is the final step in establishing a sustainable operation with positive earnings, setting Jubilee apart from most of its peers in the emerging platinum mining space,” explained Jubilee CEO Leon Coetzer last week.

The smelter operation, with an increased, fully contracted smelter capacity of 13 800 t/y of metal, was expected to sustain revenue growth for the company, supported by an increase to a targeted 38% in gross profit margins, which, in turn, would deliver positive smelter earnings, with a net margin of 12% targeted by Jubilee.

The increased smelting capacity was backed by the newly secured smelting contracts, with Coetzer pointing out that its new ferronickel contract offered an increase of 17% in revenue per tonne, with a targeted metal production of 9 600 t/y, compared with the current production level of 6 240 t/y under the current ferronickel toll contract.

“Our focus now intensifies in line with our stated company strategy of bringing into pro-duction our access to platinum-containing sur- face material and ultimately to migrate our smel-ter operations to processing platinum concen-trates,” he said.

Meanwhile, Jubilee has submitted the scoping report to the Department of Mineral Resources for the mining right application for the company’s targeted 70-million-ounce Tjate platinum mining project.

The R75-million in funds generated from the sale of Quartzhill to Anglo American Platinum subsidiary, Rustenburg Platinum Mines, will be used to further develop the Tjate project and fund the group’s surface assets.