JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – With its Maseve platinum mine, in South Africa’s North West province, now fully constructed and in the ramp-up phase of production, Platinum Group Metals (PTM) noted on Friday that it had milled 320 297 t of ore at an average grade of about 0.74 g/t by end-May, after introducing a small volume of tonnes from underground mining, along with low-grade development feed.

The dual-listed company, which operates in North America and South Africa, noted on Friday that development at the Maseve mine had established 20 ends where the Merensky reef was exposed, with 18 of these currently working ends.

PTM added that the deposit blocks that had been accessed for current mining showed good grade-thickness correlation to the block model, while the concentrator plant performed at, or in excess of, design capacity, with produced concentrate sold, while feed grades to the plant were increasing.

“Our challenge ahead is to open stopes and mine an increased volume of stoped material. Our most important and best grade thickness block in the mine plan is 90 m ahead of our declines and access and mining is expected in August,” said CEO R Michael Jones.

PTM’s recent efforts also focused on primary access development and raise lines, while active stoping areas were increasing as development and setup on Merensky reef ends was completed.

Looking forward, tonnes mined at Maseve were scheduled to increase as key mining blocks were accessed, developed and stoped. Stoping in bord-and-pillar mining and long-hole mining had also started, with grade of material feed to the mill increasing as the proportion of the stoped tonnes increased relative to development tonnes.

Meanwhile, the South Africa-focused precious-metals producer also extended its Sprott and the Liberty credit facilities, whereby the recently commissioned 300 000 oz/y Maseve operation would reach and maintain a three-month rolling average of 60% of planned production to start six months after construction completion.

The provision whereby Maseve had to reach and maintain a three-month rolling average of 70% of planned production would now start nine months post construction completion. In consideration of the amendments, the company issued 131 654 common shares to both Sprott and Liberty.

Meanwhile, the company also reported new high-grade platinum, palladium and gold (3E) assay results for recent drill intercepts completed on its Waterberg project, subsequent to the updated independent resource estimate. These included Hole WB208 drilled on the Super T layer of 9.05 g/t 3E over 5.5 m from 1 006.5 m to 1 012 m vertical depth.

Mineral resources in the T and F zones at Waterberg increased to an estimated 23.9-million ounces 4E (including rhodium) in the indicated category and 11.7-million ounces 4E in the inferred category.