South Africa: Ivanhoe Mines Enters Flatreef Orebody, Targets 2025 Production

Mining company Ivanhoe Mines has started underground development of the Flatreef orebody in South Africa’s Bushveld Complex. The high-grade orebody is part of the Platreef PGM-Nickel Mine. Production from Phase 1 of the development is set to begin in Q4, 2025, with Phase 2 anticipated for Q4, 2027.

Considered one of the world’s largest undeveloped previous metals projects, the mine contains copper, gold, nickel, palladium, platinum and rhodium resources. Based on current indicated mineral resources, the life of mine is estimated at 35 years. Phase 1 of the project is expected to produce up to 100,000 ounces of platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold; 2,000 tons of nickel; and 1,000 tons of copper.

“With a globally significant precious metals endowment exceeding 50 million ounces of gold-equivalent, Platreef is the world-leading polymetallic mine in development. The discovery remains open in many directions, with vast additional untapped opportunities…despite already having proven an astounding mineral inventory containing two billion tons of the world’s richest platinum, palladium, rhodium, nickel, copper and gold system,” stated Robert Friedland, Founder and Executive Co-Chairman, Ivanhoe Mines.

Construction of a second shaft is ongoing and set to commence operations in early-2026, increasing the mine’s capacity to over 12 million tons per annum. Ivanhoe Mines’ entry into the orebody comes over 30 years after the company’s subsidiary Ivanplats obtained the initial exploration license for the development.

The Platreef project is owned and operated by Ivanhoe Mines with a 64% interest. A Japanese consortium led by multinational conglomerate ITOCHU Corporation and ITC Platinum Development holds 10% while the remaining 26% is owned by a South African Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment vehicle.