Pan African to Start Chromite Tailings Retreatment in June

April 8th, 2010
JSE- and Aim-listed Pan African Resources said on Thursday that it would start the construction of its planned Phoenix Chromite Tailings Retreatment Plant (CTRP) in June this year, anticipating first production by the second half of 2011.
The company had previously signed an agreement with International Ferro Metals (IFM) to build the plant on IFM's property.
Pan African said that the site had now been agreed on with IFM and that it was finalising specific detail relating to the infrastructure and services requirements before the start of construction of the CTRP.
Detailed engineering design of the plant would also be undertaken before the formal agreement would be finalised, at which point the company's first payment of R25-million would become payable.
The formal agreement would also include the terms under which Phoenix Platinum could acquire a 25% net profit interest held by IFM in the platinum-group metals (PGMs) contained in the IFM Lesedi operation's tailings fraction that would be treated through the CTRP plant.
The total consideration for the CTRP site location and acquisition of the NPI has been set at R80-million in cash, while a R2-million nonrefundable exclusivity fee was payable by Phoenix to IFM.
Once construction of the CTRP had started a further R25-million would be payable to IFM, with the final R30-million payable at commissioning of the plant.
After the plant has been commissioned Pan African expects to produce about 15 000 oz/y of PGMs. The project has a life expectancy of about 17 years.