CTRP

Overview

Formed in March 2004, the Chromite Tailings Retreatment Plant (CTRP) affords Aquarius the opportunity to produce low-cost new ounces while contributing to sound environment practices. The first concentrate from the CTRP was produced in January 2005. Environmentally, the plant has a beneficial impact as it cleans up old tailings dumps, which are remnants of earlier chromite activities in the area.

In FY2010, the rights to process the chrome tailings from five additional tailings dams were secured for a period five to seven years, thus providing a guaranteed feed source and flexibility in the supply of material. Following the installation of new equipment, both recoveries and volumes are expected to improve in the coming years.

Location

The CTRP mine tailings processing facility is located 7 km northeast of Rustenburg in the North West province of South Africa.

Geology & Mineralization 

The CTRP mining operation recovers platinum group metals and gold from tailings resulted from the underground mining of the PGM/chromite reefs at adjacent mines.

Mining & Operation

The supply of tailings from current providers declined during the year as existing dumps were exhausted and the volume of current tailings
arising from chrome mining operations in the area diminished. As a result it became necessary to truck in additional material from other
sources.

The treatment of this material posed handling challenges which necessitated the installation and commissioning of more appropriate
equipment, resulting in significant plant downtime during this period.

The volume of material processed declined by 58% to 122,000t in FY2011. A significant increase in recoveries was insufficient to offset
this and production declined by 24%.

Processing

Tailings are processed through a conventional flotation circuit. In 2011, cash cost per produced ounce was $1,027.

Environment & Community

By re-processing old tailings left behind by mining operations the company helps clean the environment in a region that was heavily affected by mining.