In the wake of separating its assets from former parent company Anglo American, platinum group metals (PGMs) mining company Valterra Platinum is setting the stage to further develop one of its most significant endowments, the Mogalakwena mine, in South Africa’s Limpopo province.

Mogalakwena mine, “a mine within communities”, is nestled among 64 villages 30 km north-west of Mokopane. It is home to vast volumes of PGMs, with only 14% of the total reserve extracted over the past 30 years.

With a resource life of 150 years, there is significant opportunity ahead for Mogalakwena, the world’s largest openpit PGM mine.

“We are the industry’s most exciting endowment,” said Mogalakwena mine senior GM Kobus van den Berg, noting that the operation has blending and scaling capabilities, depending on market needs, and continues to operate in the lower half of the cost curve.

Featuring a revised mine plan, which examined pit optimisation, dumping optimisation and the ore grade, the mine is now undertaking a feasibility study into the development of Sandsloot Underground.

The Sandsloot resource, the first openpit at the mine, was selected as the highest-value case for initiating underground mining.

“Through a resource development plan, Sandsloot was identified as the first transition into understanding how an underground operation will potentially look for Mogalakwena mine,” Mogalakwena underground exploration project and studies GM Stephan Nothnagel explains.

In 2022, Valterra started developing an exploration decline into the tier-one orebody, ultimately deciding on a two-phased approach, aligned with capital preservation and to derisk the development profile.

This approach aims to develop the orebody to its maximum potential.

“It is a tier-one orebody, and it requires a tier-one mindset and a tier-one design with a capital prudence lens.”

The prefeasibility study was completed in the first half of 2025, confirming a reef grade of 4g/t to 6g/t, which enhances the mine’s blending capabilities.

Valterra Platinum mining operations executive head Willie Theron affirms the value-accretive growth opportunity of combining the underground and openpit operations.

“Essentially, the value proposition really is to have a blending strategy between the mine and what goes into the concentrator.”

By blending low-grade ore stockpiles with the high-grade ore now coming into the mix, the company can maintain its 3g/t output, which reduces the all-in sustaining cost, and enhances the operation’s resilience to price fluctuations.

Should Phase 1 receive capital approval, the mine envisions a trucking operation – hauling the first ore out of the top part of the orebody to the surface, thereby supporting an initial production rate of about two-million to 2.5-million tonnes a year, adds Nothnagel.

As part of the feasibility study, trial mining will be undertaken towards the end of 2026, followed by a ramp-up to Phase 1 steady state towards the end of the decade.

The trial mining will enable the company to deliver firm, properly trialled numbers that will directly inform the feasibility study, Theron adds.

“They are not your typical phases from a study perspective. We bring in real-world data from underground experience in trial mining that feeds into the feasibility [study], which guides us to make those important decisions.”

The feasibility study is targeted for completion in the first half of 2027, at which point an investment decision will be made.

“If we continue with the study, and beyond 2030, we envision a ramp-up to a 3.6-million- to 4.5-million-tonne-a-year operation,” Nothnagel says.

This would require an ore-handling facility. While several options are available, a conveyor system is currently being considered.

During the first half of the year, Mogalakwena mine completed 12.8 km of additional exploration drilling, developed 1.6 km of key enabling infrastructure, and delivered the first bulk ore sample.

“Cumulatively, we have [completed] over 43 km [of] exploration drilling, and we have developed just over eight kilometres. All of that goes into the feasibility study.”

Openpit Value Stands

While this marks an exciting new journey for the company, there is no immediate need for underground development to sustain throughput and maintain the company’s H1 cost curve position, with optimised openpit operations delivering one-million ounces a year.

The openpit mine has a “detailed, capitalised and costed” mine plan, says Van den Berg.

Near-term openpit grades from the four truck-and-shovel operations – Zwartfontein as well as Mogalakwena south, central and north – are expected to average 2.7 g/t to 2.9 g/t, rising to 3 g/t in the mid-term.

“We are the largest ounce contributor in the company . . . and with the underground with the higher grade, it gives us that optionality to blending ability and also the scalability, should the market demand [that].”

The underground ore is expected to average 4 g/t to 6 g/t before blending, and combining this with openpit ore enhances long-term value, further improving all-in sustaining costs and supporting future growth.

He further points out that the operation has been working to improve drilling efficiency and load-and-haul efficiency.

Total drilled metres increased by 5% from 2022 to 2024, resulting in a 13% increase in the amount of tonnes blasted – evidence of efficient and effective drilling, he says.

“We have also seen a reduction in the amount of trucks.”

As part of the pit optimisation strategy in Mogalakwena’s revised mining plan – which targets mining more towards the north to attain lower strip ratios of 4.5 to 6.7 in the outer years and unlock shorter hauling distances – the mine activated the north waste rock dump this year, yielding a 27% reduction in truck cycle times.

The closer dump allows the operation to start looking at “parking” some trucks, ultimately reducing both its carbon footprint and costs even further.

The group’s Komatsu 4800 rope shovel also led to significant improvements between 2022 and 2024. The 100-t-plus-capacity rope shovel dumps three loads within minutes into 300-t-capacity Komatsu 930E trucks on either side of the massive machine.

“The nameplate, more or less, of the 4800 is getting us to about 40-million tonnes a year, and . . . coupled and paired with 950E trucks, it just creates a lot of synergies.”

Valterra Platinum’s Mogalakwena mine is also home to two concentrators, North and South, providing sufficient capacity.

As part of a footprint reduction project to replace the conventional cleaner bank, the mine commissioned the Jameson cleaner circuit at its Mogalakwena North Concentrator. It was completed and handed over in April this year, with operationalisation from May to June. Ramp-up started in July, with completion expected in December, from when the full benefit will be seen.

Mogalakwena mine concentrators acting GM Herman Kemp says that the North Concentrator, commissioned in 2008, is the world’s largest PGM concentrator. Kitted out with a lot of technology, it delivers throughput of 9.5-million tonnes a year.

The mine also operates the Mogalakwena South Concentrator. Commissioned in 1993, it delivers 4.5-million tonnes of throughput a year.

In parallel, the group is constructing an additional tailings storage facility (TSF).

The Vaalkop TSF has been inactive since 2021, while the Blinkwater 1 TSF remains active until 2028.

To add to this, the mine is constructing Blinkwater 2 to expand the overall TSF. Construction of the rock impound facility started this year.

“We have pulled out all the stops in terms of making sure our dams are fully conformant and safe,” says Kemp, noting that intense monitoring includes drone surveillance and daily satellite displacement monitoring, along with water pressure tracking across the dams.

The mine also has an independent technical review panel comprising external industry experts who visit the dams once a year. In addition, an external dam safety review is conducted once every five years. The most recent review at Mogalakwena was conducted in 2022, with the next planned for 2027.

The mine is also compliant with the Global Industry Standards on Tailings Management, or GISTM, and updated its publicly available compliance disclosure on August 5.

New Era for Valterra Platinum

Overall, the future looks promising for Valterra Platinum as a newly separated group.

Earlier this year, Valterra Platinum, formerly Anglo American Platinum, separated from its parent company, Anglo American, listing on the JSE and the LSE as a standalone entity.

During a recent site visit to the company’s flagship Mogalakwena mine, the senior leadership and executive team showcased the mine and outlined the company’s progress moving forward. With a continued focus on balancing production with striving for zero-harm operations, Valterra has been simplified and strengthened to ensure it is able to stand on its own.

“We are strengthening our key capabilities, [and while] it is work in progress, we believe that, if we are a simplified, strengthened organisation, we will have that competitive advantage,” says Valterra corporate affairs and sustainability executive head Yvonne Mfolo.

“It is important that we are efficient, sweat our assets, manage our cash flows and expand our margins, as well as invest in our portfolio for maximum value and ensure disciplined capital allocation,” she says of the group’s capital allocation framework.

Valterra Platinum has an integrated asset portfolio – from mine to market.

“We have assets that are still going to endure for a lot of years, and we can continue creating value while developing these assets.”

The company continues to review growth opportunities, demand trends, use-case creation, and broader market development opportunities.