Project

Eastern Platinum Limited (Eastplats) is an established Platinum Group Metals (PGM) mining company with assets on both the Western and Eastern Limb of the Bushveld Igneous Complex (BIC). The Spitzkop Platinum (Pty) Ltd Mine is located on farms Spitskop 333 KT and Kennedy’s Vale 361 KT in the Steelpoort area of the Sekhukhune District Municipality, Limpopo Province.

The Environmental Management Programme Report (EMPR) for Spitzkop Platinum (Pty) Ltd (Spitzkop), for activities under mining right LP 30/5/1/2/2/207 MR, was approved on 8 October 2009. Some of the activities in the approved EMPr fall on the adjacent farm, which falls under Kennedy’s Vale (mining right LP 30/5/1/2/2/10009 MR). On 4 March 2015, Rhodium Reefs Limited, which owns Kennedy’s Vale, received approval for an EIA covering proposed activities on Kennedy’s Vale (ref. ROD 12/1/9/2-GS24).

Eastplats indirectly wholly owns Kennedy’s Vale via its subsidiary Rhodium Reefs. It also has 93% direct and indirect ownership in the Spitzkop Platinum (Pty) Ltd, which owns and manages Spitzkop Mine. The premise for both EAs was that mining would take place on Spitzkop, and the processing plant and tailings storage facility (TSF) would be situated on Kennedy’s Vale.
According to the EIA/EMP (Metago Environmental Engineers, 2009) it is estimated that the production from the project will be approximately 48,000 tonnes of PGM concentrate and 15,000 tonnes of chrome concentrate per year. Life of Mine (LoM) is 30 years.

In 2013 Eastplats Spitzkop was placed under Care and Maintenance due to the sustained weakness in PGM’s pricing. In 2022 Eastplats embarked on studies for the Spitzkop Mine. The study showed that mining on Spitzkop is economically viable if opencast and underground mining is combined.

OMI Solutions (Pty) Limited (OMI) has been appointed as the independent environmental assessment practitioner to undertake the Scoping and EIA process which is aimed at critically evaluating the potential environmental and social impacts of the proposed project.