Aquarius Acquires Ridge Mining

Aquarius Platinum announced on July 30, 2009, that it had completed its acquisition of Ridge Mining in an agreed transaction initially announced in February 2009. Key assets involved in the acquisition were Ridge’s Blue Ridge platinum group metals (PGMs) mine on the eastern limb of South Africa’s Bushveld complex, which shipped its first concentrates in April 2009, and its nearby Sheba’s Ridge development project. The Blue Ridge mine, which was 50%-owned and operated by Ridge, is ramping up to full capacity of 125,000 combined oz/y of platinum, palladium, rhodium, and gold in concentrate. Mineral resources total 5.34 million oz of pgm plus gold. Imbani Platinum holds the remaining 50% of the mine.

A pre-feasibility study of Sheba’s Ridge, completed in December 2007, outlined an open-pit project producing 390,000 oz/y of PGM and 24,000 mt/y of nickel. The project has an estimated resource of 19 million oz PGM and 1.4 million mt of nickel, plus 500,000 mt of copper. The study examined the project in considerable detail, including environmental and social impact studies; geology; mineral resource and ore reserve estimation; mine planning; engineering geology; mining equipment and method; waste storage; experimental metallurgy; planning of the concentrator, smelter, converters, and acid plant; further treatment of matte; and a detailed financial model. Ownership of Sheba’s Ridge is split three ways, with Aquarius currently holding 39%, Anglo Platinum 35%, and the Industrial Development Corp. of South Africa 26%. The project remains under review.

Aquarius produced 98,258 attributable PGM oz during its fiscal forth quarter, ending June 30, 2009. The Kroondaal mine produced 105,720 oz (50% Aquarius), and the Marikana mine produced 37,753 oz (50% Aquarius). Both mines are located on the western limb of the Bushveld complex. In Zimbabwe, the Mimosa mine produced 46,774 oz (50% Aquarius). Aquarius also holds a 50% interest in the Chromite Tailings Retreatment Project and in Platinum Mile Resources (Pty) Ltd., both of which recover PGMs from the tailings streams of various platinum and chrome mining operations on the western limb of the Bushveld complex.

Aquarius also announced in July that it is pursuing plans to reopen its Everest mine on the eastern limb of the Bushveld complex, where mining was suspended in December 2008 due to a subsidence event. The mine produced 157,995 oz of PGMs (100% Aquarius) in Aquarius’ 2008 fiscal year.

As featured in Womp 2009 Vol 07 - www.womp-int.com