OPERATIONS







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CHROMITE TAILINGS RETREATMENT PROJECT




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The Company has acquired a 25% interest in the CTRP, led by Aquarius Platinum Limited, which will treat chromite tailings in order to extract the platinum group metals (platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold). The consortium is constructing a purpose built plant at the Kroondal Mine, operated by Aquarius Platinum Limited.

Sylvania's 25% interest in the Chromite Tailings Retreatment Project ("CTRP") is held through its 100% owned South African subsidiary, Sylvania South Africa (Pty) Ltd.

The construction of the Plant commenced in May 2004 and will be completed in November 2004. First production of PGM concentrate is anticipated before the end of the December 2004 quarter.

The capital cost of the project, which is to be managed by Aquarius Platinum (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, is estimated to be R28.5 million (Including working capital).

Operating costs including management fees are estimated at R92 per ton in the first year reducing to R80 per ton thereafter. At an exchange rate of R7/US$1, this equates to an operating cost of US$170 per PGM oz in year one, reducing to US$145 per PGM oz thereafter.

The project economics have been conservatively modelled and are very robust over a broad range of metal price and exchange rate assumptions. An after-tax internal rate of return of 72% is generated at a basket price of US$521 per PGM oz with an exchange rate of R7/US$1. An after-tax internal rate of return of 40% is generated at a basket price of US$389 per PGM oz with an exchange rate of R6/US$1. The current PGM basket price for the RK1 material sits at around $US750 per PGM oz, which is significant and premium to the preffered price used in the model.

The project will treat old dumps and current tailings streams derived from the beneficiation process of chromite miners in the Kroondal area. Chromite miners upgrade the chromite content of their chromite ores producing a tailings stream, which contains the majority of the PGM content of the run of mine chrome ores. It is these chrome ores with elevated levels of PGM that are treated by the consortium The tailings and dump material, due to their fine particle size, can be fed directly into the new facility's flotation process. PGM's will be recovered by conventional flotation and the resultant concentrate will be processed under existing off-take agreements.



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EVEREST NORTH PROJECT

The Everest North project lies on the Farm Vygenkoek in the eastern Bushveld of South Africa, and is prospective for Platinum Group Metals (PGMs). Previous work has outlined an Inferred resource of 7.4 million tonnes grading 3.38 g/t (Platinum, Palladium, Rhodium and Gold), for an Inferred resource of 796,000 ounces of PGMs. Sylvania will further test the ground to assess the viability of delivering dense medium separation sinks to Aquarius at their Everest South Mine, which is currently under construction.

Sylvania will initially pay to Aquarius R2 million and will become a contractor to Aquarius. Sylvania will then, at its cost, prospect the Everest North Project area. Upon proof of the project viability, Sylvania will assist Aquarius to obtain a mining right which will subsequently be transferred to Sylvania. Sylvania will pay a further R6 million to Aquarius upon grant of the mining right to Sylvania.

Aquarius and Sylvania shall, for a period of three months from the date of the grant of a mining right to Sylvania, negotiate on an exclusive basis, to conclude a written agreement to regulate the terms upon which Sylvania shall supply to Aquarius all PGM bearing ore produced from the property, or in circumstances where Sylvania has constructed a concentrator plant to process PGM bearing ore from the property to produce PGM concentrate, any such PGM concentrate.



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SAMANCOR DUMPS

The company announced on the 11th October 2005 that they have won a tender with Samancor Chrome Ltd (“Samancor”) to retreat chrome tailings and extract the platinum group metals (PGM’s) at Samancor's Millsell and Waterkloof mine sites, located approximately 4.2km from the Chromite Tailings Retreatment Plant (“CTRP”) in the Western Bushveld region of South Africa.

The agreements, which are currently being finalised, will require Sylvania to create two consortia: one for the retreatment of the chrome and the other for the subsequent extraction of the PGM’s.

Sylvania’s equity participation in the chrome retreatment consortium is expected to be 74% (26% self funded BEE). In the PGM extraction consortium Sylvania will own 100% of the equity, reducing to approximately 50% once current negotiations with Aquarius Platinum Limited are completed. It is anticipated that Aquarius will manage the PGM programme in line with the current practice at the CTRP. An additional 1,450 oz per month of PGMs is expected to be generated by the new deal.

The Consortium will treat 30,000 tonnes per month of dormant tailings mixed with current arisings from the Millsell and Waterkloof Mines. The chrome produced will be sold back to Samancor on commercial terms.

The PGM tailings from the Millsell Chrome Washing Plant will be piped to the current CTRP for PGM extraction.

The capital expenditure for the Chrome Washing Plant upgrade, the construction of the pipeline to the CTRP and the upgrade of the CTRP is expected to be in the region of A$2m.




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