JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The two words, Jameson and cells, came up several times during Valterra Platinum’s information-packed presentation of excellent 2025 financial results, owing to these cells ringing many efficiency bells at the north concentrator of the Mogalakwena operation of this Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed company.

Achieved has been a 21% reduction in trucks transporting concentrates, a 4% decrease in smelter electricity consumption, and a corresponding 5% reduction in CO₂ emissions, delivering an estimated cost saving of about R123-million, with additional savings expected in 2026 commensurate with further improvements in mass pull - the amount of material put through smelters in order to extract the slag and platinum group metals.

“If you reduce the mass pull, it means you're running your smelters much more efficiently. You can reduce your energy consumption because the amount of material that you need to put through the smelters is a lot lower,” Valterra Platinum CEO Craig Miller said in response to Mining Weekly’s questions.

Following the commissioning of the Jameson cells in the first half of 2025, the plant has been optimised to deliver further improvements and additional improvements are expected at the Mogalakwena north concentrator.

"As optimisation continues and the plant's annualised impact is realised, we're also encouraged by the almost one percentage point improvement in the adjusted north concentrator recoveries since the commissioning.

"While the recovery uplift was not the primary objective of the introduction of the Jameson cells, the team is optimistic that further improvements may follow.

"To put that impact into perspective, volumes at the Mogalakwena north concentrator declined 14% while concentrate grade increased 16%. Importantly, there are many wider benefits to the mass pull reduction,” Miller pointed out.

Valterra is aiming for a 30% CO₂ reduction by 2030 and net zero by 2040. They also plan to procure 30% of energy from renewables.

“We’re very focused around driving better efficiencies, better productivity and improvements in every aspect of the value chain,” he explained.

The cells play their role towards the end of the concentration process and before the waste material goes off to the tailings dam.

Most importantly, the benefit of the Jameson cells is their ability to reduce the amounts of concentrate mass transported to the smelters without loss of grade or recovery.

“So, we've actually been able to maintain our overall recoveries and through the reduction in mass pull, and the real financial benefits that translates into, you have a higher grade concentrate,and lower amounts of material that you need to move, so we're able to reduce the number of trucks that we use transporting concentrate from Mogalakwena to our Polokwane smelter by 21% as a consequence of the implementation and the successful commissioning of the Jameson cells.

“Because of the lower amount of concentrate that you then have to smelt at the smelter, we had a 4% reduction in energy consumption at the smelter and a 5% reduction in CO₂ emissions, so this is environmentally beneficial as well, not only taking trucks off the road, but also in terms of our CO₂ emissions, because of that lower energy, and the value that we create is not only the sustainability benefits, but also the financial benefits. On an annualised basis, it will save us about a quarter-of-a-billion rand, at least, in costs as a consequence of implementing the Jameson cells,” Miller calculated.

“We're in the process of refurbishing the south concentrator, and one of the things that we'll look at it in the refurbishment is introducing the Jameson cells at south concentrator as well. That'll be in a couple of years.

SBG Securities’ Adrian Hammond asked if the R1-billion to R1.5-billion 2026 operational savings guided were not on the conservative side given the additional benefits expected from Jameson cells, and Valterra CFO Sayurie Naidoo explained that there would be continued benefits from operational excellence such as the mass pull initiatives and renewable energy and that the R1-billion to R1.5-billion savings range was corporate-cost related.

“Clearly, the Jameson cells have been really successful,” Miller said in response to David Roche Kelly of Phoenix Research, who asked during question time whether the 40% reduction in mass pull brought about by the Jameson cells at Mogalakwena’s north concentrator was transferable to the other concentrators.

“We will look to see whether we can install the Jameson cells at the south concentrator at Mogalakwena. We’re evaluating it.

“I think it's less impactful at Amandelbult, given its scale and installed capacity, but our primary focus is really driving that efficiency at Mogalakwena. That looks to be our biggest opportunity at the moment,” Miller reported.