Located adjacent to the Stillwater mine, the Blitz mining project has been estimated to produce 270,000-330,000oz of platinum and palladium annually.
Initial ore intersected and excavated from the project has been found to be significantly of higher grade than the average Stillwater mine combined proven and probable 2E reserve grade of 0.57oz/ton (19.55g/tonne).
Sibanye-Stillwater said that the initial cut delivered ore has an estimated average 2E grade of 1.15oz/ton (39g/tonne) based on muck sampling along the entire 115ft of ore width intersected within the stope block.
The company added that the final infrastructure needed to kick start production was completed by building a secondary escape-way system at the Blitz 10 stope bloc.
The 1,360 tonnes of ore that was excavated during development phase will now be processed.
Sibanye-Stillwater CEO Neal Froneman said: “Delivery of low cost, production growth into a robust price environment, supported by long term palladium fundamentals in our view, is what underpinned our decision to acquire Stillwater.
“The early commissioning of Blitz has confirmed our view that the US operations will deliver significant value to Sibanye-Stillwater in future.”
Blitz is due to hit full production of around 300,000oz (2E) by late 2021 or early 2022, increasing the company's total PGM production from the US operations then by over 50% to nearly 850,000oz. This could result in further cut down of unit operating costs of the US operations.
