Wesizwe Platinum : Bakubung Platinum Mine (BPM) today

11 May 2016

The Bakubung project is on steady progress, with important targets being met, some even ahead of time set to meet them.

In 2015 the biggest milestone for both shafts were met in October and November with a completion of vertical shaft sinking on both shafts and the mine has now started with the commissioning of the Main Shaft. Amongst the things that are keeping BPM personnel busy is the equipping of the main shaft to support mine production and services up to steady state. The piping system has been completed with six sets of pipes in place and the next step is a headgear change over and going down with shaft steelwork, this is planned to be completed in May 2017 The underground flat development through the services shaft has also been started, the critical path is to connect the shafts at all levels (69L, 72L, 77L, 81L and 82L.

In partnership with Magalies Water Authority, Wesizwe has commissioned a permanent portion of water supply and about a 12 million litres of water per day will be supplied to the mine once the supply is fully commissioned in q2 2016. The company in partnership with Masseve is currently building a 50 Ml reservoir that will supply the mines and community and other users with water, the construction is planned to be completed in November 2016.

Key milestones

Phase 1 and 2 of the mine housing project feasibility studies are awaiting board approvals and the company is in consultation with key stakeholders such as the government, community, the IDC, other funding institutions and the local municipalities. About 800 units will be built after the contacts have been finalised, the aim is to build the houses first then claim on finishing the project.

Stakeholder engagement

Engagement with key stakeholders continues at a steady pace with the quarterly Stakeholder Engagement Forum in place, but currently being reviewed for value-add. We also continue engaging with the DMR and we received a clean audit in the recent audit conducted. The mine has been stopped several times, which has provided us with good lessons and we have built good relations with the department.

Safety

Our vision and mission guide us towards being an exemplary mining company. The aim is to keep our focus on safety until we are a fully-fledged mining house that can be benchmarked on for our untainted record on safety. We have had unfortunate incidents in the past two years, which has propelled us to dig deep and find means and ways to create sustainable safety methods. This is yielding results and we not only focus on safety incidents but we look at Health as well as root causes of some incidents. We have put systems into place that work as support for record keeping and measurement of strategies put in place.

Conclusion

2016 is a promising year for the project and Wesizwe as a whole. With the follow-on on business strategies and plans made, by the time the commodity prices pick up, Wesizwe and BPM will be ready to maximise the potential we have as the company.

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