http://www.miningmx.com/platinum/980...

Braemore accelerates PGM alloy refining plan
Allan Seccombe
Posted: Tue, 31 Mar 2009

[miningmx.com] -- BRAEMORE Resources is accelerating its move into refining the platinum it produces from its ConRoast plant in South Africa to bolster operating margins in a very difficult market as it plots a rollout of its technology.

Braemore is licensed by South African minerals research group Mintek to use the ConRoast technology that can cope with high levels of chrome in platinum group metals (PGMs) concentrate, a particular problem the widely used smelting technology cannot cope with. It also reduces sulphur pollution that is a problem with existing smelting technologies.

Braemore’s new 3.2 megawatt smelter at Mintek’s facilities in an urban neighbourhood experienced minor explosions when water came into contact with molten metal.

Braemore reckons it will take R1.5m to repair what it called superficial damage that will have “minimal impact” on production, with the plant to start 10 days after the incident on 27 April.

The incident is unlikely to sway sentiment about the reliability of the ConRoast technology amongst professionals in the platinum sector. Braemore has hosted visits to the Mintek site to show a range of interested people the cause of the incident and how superficial the damage is to stamp out concerns raised by media reports, said CEO Leon Coetzer.

It is accelerating work into refining the PGM-rich iron alloy from the ConRoast smelter as the downturn in the global economy negatively affected refining margins and put pressure on Braemore’s margins.

“This margin squeeze is beyond the Company’s control though Braemore has reacted decisively by accelerating its move into downstream hydrometallurgical refining of the smelted PGM alloy,” said chairman Mathews Phosa.

“The refined product from the hydrometallurgical refining of the PGM alloy offers significant increases in operating margins,” he said in a statement.

“Braemore has achieved a critical milestone by concluding the required hydrometallurgical process flowsheet from its research programmes and has committed to the accelerated construction of the refining facility.”

This is an exciting development in the company's technology, which could allow junior producers to market a finished PGM product that is of similar quality to that coming from the major platinum companies, said Coetzer.

Braemore will build a demonstration plant to match production from its 3.2MW plant in an industrial area that already has environmental permits for leaching operations. The plant will be built and brought into production within nine months of finalising the site and red tape, he told Miningmx. Braemore should have its permits in the next six weeks.

The cost of the refining plant, which uses an atmospheric leaching process and solvent extraction to separate base metals and iron from the PGMs, will be less than R50m, he said.

Over the next two to three years Braemore plans to release details of a "novel" way it is looking at to improve the leaching process.

It also expects to announce a deal this year on a tie up of some sorts, be it an offtake agreement, joint venture or some kind of corporate activity where this technology boosts the value of a junior's project.

Braemore is looking at developing 5MW modular plants instead of its planned single 10MW plant so as to accomodate the downturn in the economic markets and the reduction in expenditure on developing platinum projects. The 5MW plant will cater for one large project or two medium-sized ones unlike the 10MW plant that needed up to four large projects to be viable.

The 5MW plant could handle 3,000 to 3,500 tonnes of concentrate a month, producing in the order of 85,000 to 90,000 oz of PGMs a year, and depending on the grade of the concentrate, up to 100,000 oz.

Braemore posted a deeper interim loss of £4.4m for the period to end-December 2008 from £1m the year before. This was largely due to the settlement of an old contract at a cost of £2m. There was also the switchover from the 1.5MW smelter to the 3.2MW plant, which entailed a loss of production.

In all, Braemore produced 6,892 oz of PGMs during the period, securing recoveries of 99.52%.