Mogalakwena mine open-pit platinum mine is located near the town of Mokopane in Limpopo. The mine was established in 1993 and is wholly owned by Anglo American and represents one of the largest platinum reserves in South Africa.
The flagship of Anglo American’s platinum operations, Mogalakwena mine consists of five main open-pits (North, Central, South, Zwartfontein and Sandsloot) which mine relatively flat Platreef ore body, recognised for its thick (80m to 100m in thickness) reef, which is well above typical PGM reef thickness on the Eastern and Western Bushveld complex limbs. Two concentrators are fed by the pits and supplemented by a an off-site (on contract) Baobab concentrator.
There is a project at Mogalakwena, which will involve building a third concentrator at an indicative cost of up to R12-billion, which will increase palladium output by 270 000oz a year and platinum by 250 000oz on top of the about 500 000oz of each metal coming from the mine now.
The Platreef project is in the process of constructing the sinking shaft which started in 2016. The main sinking phase will advance at a rate of about 45m per month until it reaches the planned final depth of 1 025m below surface. Also included is the development of four shaft stations at depths of 450m, 750m, 850m and 950m below surface.
