PLATREEF ON TRACK TO RAMP UP PHASE 1 CONCENTRATOR
PROJECTS AND EXPLORATION •
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Since then, the concentrator continues to ramp up in line with expectations. As previously guided, lower-grade development ore will continue to be fed into the concentrator during the initial rampup stages until Shaft # 3 is ready to hoist in early Q2 2026, at which point feed will be increasingly replaced by production ore. From early Q2 2026, the concentrator is expected to steadily ramp up, consistently achieving 80 % of nameplate capacity by mid-year. The 2026 production guidance will be provided at a later date, as the concentrator ramp-up is more advanced.
PLATREEF ON TRACK TO RAMP UP PHASE 1 CONCENTRATOR
Location: South Africa Phase: Development Resource: Precious metals
Ivanhoe Mines announced that Shaft # 3 completion is scheduled for April 2026, increasing hoisting capacity to 5 million tonnes per annum. The company shared a progress report on what’ s said to be the world’ s“ largest” precious metals mine development.
Executive co-chairperson Robert Friedland and president and Chief Executive Officer Marna Cloete announced on 12 January 2026 that, following the official opening and first production of concentrate from the Platreef Mine in Limpopo, South Africa on 18 November 2025, the development of the mine continues to rapidly advance as precious and base metals reach new highs.
Friedland commented:“ The world is waking up to a new metals super-cycle, where precious and base metals are no longer optional, they are essential. Prices are rising because scarcity is real and demand is relentless. This comes at a time when platinum, palladium, rhodium, copper and nickel are identified by countries
all around the globe as strategic minerals.
“ Into this moment steps the Platreef Mine, which has a once-in-ageneration orebody, a discovery so vast that it will be producing precious metals for generations to come, with 59 million ounces in the indicated category and 94 million ounces in the inferred category, plus significant nickel and copper. The Platreef Mine is not a typical South African precious metals mine scratching at narrow, one-metre-thick seams. The Platreef system is a geological wonder. The flat-lying orebody is approximately twenty-five times thicker than our industry incumbents, averaging 26m of continuous mineralisation, which means scale, which means mechanisation, and mechanisation means lower costs and safer operations. Under our current thinking, while taking into account current record metals prices, we are initiating discussions to dramatically bring forward the date for the third phase of expansion. Watch this space.”
The Platreef Mine’ s Phase 1 concentrator produced the first batch of platinum, palladium, nickel, rhodium, gold and copper concentrate on 18 November 2025, during the official opening ceremony.
Since late Q4 2025, underground development has also advancing on the 750-metre level, as well as on the 850-metre level, where the Flatreef orebody was first intersected in May 2025. Blasting of the first long-hole stoping blocks( production mining) on the Platreef Mine’ s 850-metre level is expected imminently. Ore tonnes from the long-hole stopes will only be hoisted to surface in early Q2 2026 once Shaft # 3 is ready to hoist.
The completion of Shaft # 3 is on track and is expected to be ready-to-hoist from April 2026. Barrel equipping of the shaft and construction of the underground loading box were both recently completed. The remaining workstreams of installing the permanent headframe and completing the installation of the underground conveyors and loading infrastructure are on track to be completed by the end of the first quarter. Once operational, Shaft # 3 will increase total available hoisting capacity from 0.8Mtpa to approximately 5.0Mtpa.
The completion of Shaft # 3 will increase the mine’ s available hoisting capacity by approximately five times to 5.0Mtpa. The new shaft will enable greater flexibility of hoisting to the surface, both ore and waste from the mine. Therefore, waste generated from the widening of Shaft # 2, which is expected to commence in April 2026, as well as waste development required in preparation for the start of the Phase 2 expansion in Q4 2027, can be hoisted concurrently with ore for the Phase 1 concentrator. This was not possible with Shaft # 1 alone.
In addition, the first sale of concentrate from the Phase 1 concentrator to Northam Platinum Ltd of Johannesburg, South Africa took place in late Q4 2025.
The Ivanplats’ project team has commenced work on Phase 2 development, with the concentrator expansion targeted for completion in Q4 2027. DRA Global of Perth, Australia was recently appointed as the engineering, procurement and construction management( EPCM) contractor for the Phase 2 underground infrastructure and the 3.3-million-tonne-perannum Phase 2 concentrator.
DRA Global was the EPCM contractor that delivered the Phase 1 concentrator on schedule in June 2024. Earthworks on the Phase 2 concentrator site, located adjacent to the Phase 1 concentrator, were scheduled to commence in the coming weeks.
www. africanmining. co. za African Mining Publication African Mining African Mining • April 2026 • 11