お知らせ • May 12
Ivanhoe's Mining Crews Have Entered the Giant Flatreef Platinum-Palladium-Rhodium-Nickel-Gold-Copper Orebody After 30 Years of Efforts
Ivanhoe Mines Executive Co-Chairman Robert Friedland and President and Chief Executive Officer Marna Cloete announced that mining crews have driven underground development into the high-grade platinum, palladium, rhodium, nickel, gold, and copper orebody for the first time, as the mine rapidly advances to commercial production later this year. The significant milestone comes over 30 years since Ivanplats, the company's subsidiary, acquired the first exploration licence and 15 years since the discovery of the 26-metre thick, flat-lying Flatreef orebody was announced. Today's milestone also comes nine years since the initiation of the sinking of Shaft 1. After completing the sinking of Shaft 1 to a depth of 996 metres in 2021, Ivanhoe has completed 5.5 kilometres (over 3.4 miles) of tunnels on three levels; the 750-metre level, 850-metre level, and 950-metre level. Ivanplats' mining crews entered the Flatreef orebody on the 850-metre level, with the first blast of high-grade ore on May 7, 2025. Underground development on the 750-metre and 950-metre levels will also enter the Flatreef orebody in the coming weeks. Ore from the ongoing underground development will be stored on surface ahead of the first feed of ore into the Phase 1 concentrator in the fourth quarter of this year. Construction of Africa's largest hoisting shaft, Shaft 2, is advancing well. Raiseboring to a depth of 950 metres and an initial diameter of 3.1 metres was completed at the end of the first quarter. Shaft 2's expansion out to a final diameter of 10 metres will commence in early 2026. In the meantime, construction of the Shaft 2's concrete and steel headframe is advancing on schedule. The completion of Shaft 2 will increase the total hoisting capacity from the Platreef Mine to over 12 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa). The Platreef Mine is located on the 'Northern Limb' of the Bushveld Complex in South Africa, approximately 11 kilometres from Mokopane, and 280 kilometres northeast of Johannesburg. Platinum, palladium, rhodium, nickel, gold, and copper mineralization in the Northern Limb is primarily hosted within a mineralized sequence over 30 kilometres in strike, called the Platreef. Ivanplatsacquired a prospecting permit for Macalacaskop and Turfspruit in February 1998 and began a series of drilling campaigns, totaling more than 726,000 metres, to delineate Platreef from a greenfield exploration project initially focused on shallow mineralized zones, before shifting exploration focus in 2007 to deeper extensions of this original discovery. A significant breakthrough came in 2010 when Ivanhoe's geologists discovered that the thick, high-grade, down-dip extension of the system started to flatten out from a depth of between 750 and 850 metres, hence the name Flatreef. Upon the discovery of Flatreef, Ivanplats conducted a major exploration program in 2011 of 260,000 metres, which had at the height of the drilling campaign 30 diamond drill rigs producing more than 10,000 metres of core per week. The Flatreef orebody consists of two mineralized zones (T1 & T2), which combined are up to 29 metres thick. This thickness is exceptional when compared to the typical, approximately one-meter-thick reefs currently mined by incumbent platinum group metal mining operations in the Western and Eastern Limbs of South Africa's Bushveld Complex. The Flatreef orebody is situated on two contiguous properties, Turfspruit and Macalacaskop, which total approximately 78 square kilometres (km2). The northern edge of the Turfspruit licence borders with, and is contiguous along strike from, Anglo Platinum's Mogalakwena Mine. A Japanese consortium, led by ITOCHU Corporation and ITC Platinum Development Ltd., acquired a 10% interest in the Platreef project via two tranches. The first 2% interest was acquired in September 2010 for $10 million and the further 8% interest was acquired in 2011 for $280 million. A 26% interest in the Platreef project was also transferred in 2014 to a Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) vehicle in conformance with South Africa's mining laws and in fulfillment of the requirements of the company's Mining Right application. The remaining 64% is owned and operated by Ivanhoe Mines indirectly through its subsidiary, Ivanplats. The polymetallic Flatreef orebody is unique, with a diversified basket of metals, including large, highly valuable gold and rhodium by-products. The polymetallic Flatreef orebody is both the largest undeveloped precious metals project, as well as one of the world's largest undeveloped nickel sulphide resources in the world. The Flatreef orebody also possesses several unique characteristics compared with other platinum group metal operations in the Bushveld Complex. The Flatreef orebody is high-grade, thick and flat lying, which is ideal for safe, large-scale, modern mechanized mining for maximum ore extraction. Additionally, the polymetallic orebody comprises a platinum-to-palladium ratio of approximately 1:1, together contributing approximately 55% of the revenue basket at spot prices. Rhodium and gold together contribute approximately 20% of the revenue basket, with the remaining 25% derived from nickel and copper. The Flatreef orebody has 93 million ounces in Indicated Platinum Equivalent Mineral Resources, at 1.0 g/t cut off of platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold. The Flatreef also contains 144 million ounces in Inferred Platinum Equivalent Mineral Resources, at 1.0 g/t cut-off of platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold. The Flatreef orebody has exceptional exploration upside for further resource expansion across the 78-square-kilometre licence area, with the potential to extend mining operations for generations to come. As underground development progresses, further drilling from underground will be undertaken with the goal of increasing confidence, as well as expanding Mineral Resources for future expansions. Flatreef orebody's Indicated Mineral Resources contain an estimated 4.3 million ounces of gold, while Inferred Mineral Resources contain an additional 6.9 million ounces of gold at a 1.0 g/t cut-off of platinum, palladium, rhodium, and gold. Gold has recently traded near all-time highs of $3,500 per ounce. In addition, the Flatreef's Indicated Mineral Resources contain an estimated 1.8 million ounces of rhodium, while Inferred Mineral Resources contain an additional 2.7 million ounces of rhodium at a 1.0 g/t cut-off of platinum, palladium, rhodium, and gold. Rhodium is a rare, silvery-white, corrosion-resistant transition metal used in many applications, including jewelry, catalytic converters, and microelectronics. Rhodium has recently traded as high as $6,000 per ounce, with prices spiking above $25,000 per ounce in 2021.
