[Garatouw, Limpopo – 13 May 2021] China-headquartered Zijin Mining Group, through its subsidiary Nkwe Platinum, on May 13 announced the start of development at its Garatau platinum-group metals (PGMs) mine, in Limpopo.
Limpopo premier Stan Mathabatha has commended the leadership of Nkwe Platinum Mine and Zijin Mining Group, for their investment in the establishment of the Garatau Platinum Mine saying it will create much-needed jobs for the people of Sekhukhune, contributing significantly towards government’s efforts of reducing the unemployment rate and fighting poverty.
Mining operations at Garatau are due to begin at the end of this month with the construction of the box-cut, which will make way for the decline shaft development towards the end of this year.
The annual average processing capacity of Garatau is expected to yield 3.6 million tonnes of ore once full capacity is achieved in several years’ time. The life of mine is estimated to be more than 29 years. Nkwe Platinum Limited is expected to rank amongst the top ten platinum suppliers in the world after the project goes into full production.
“The mine will offer jobs, training and education. It will develop, infrastructure and provide financial and social upliftment to the local communities, the municipal district and the Province of Limpopo”, noted MD and CEO of Nkwe Platinum Limited, Mr Zhiyu Fan.
As part of the mine’s first generation social and labour plan (‘SLP’), some R18 million has already been invested in the upgrading of the Garatau Community Access Road. The upgraded road connects the HC Boshoff Hospital to the Ga-Makwae village and has been used by the local communities since December 2020.
Nkwe Platinum Limited has further invested over R14.5 million into Adult Training and Education, Learnerships and Bursaries, which have benefited the surrounding mine communities.
“We believe that the development of enterprises is closely related to the sustainable development of our surrounding communities. Through, education, medical treatment, industrial support, infrastructure construction and disaster relief, we can develop and work together in a mutually beneficial and harmonious way for the benefit of all”, noted Fan.
In October 2020, the second generation SLP was approved, which will see further local economic development (‘LED’) projects in the form of clean water supply to the local mine communities over the next few years. The water supply project has already commenced with the supply of water tanks and re-equipping of water boreholes.
Laichang Zou, President of Zijin stressed that under the principle of Common Development, the company is building an ESG system to international standards to ensure coordinated development between our company, our employees and the wider society. Zijin strives to create a shared future between the projects and our host communities. He believes that with the commencement of the project, more and more people will benefit from it.
As a priority, Nkwe Platinum Limited will employ people from the local communities for all projects where possible and will continue to provide bursaries and learnership program for students from the local community, provide community donations to alleviate poverty and provide support to the local communities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We look forward to the support from all our stakeholders including our local communities, National, Provincial, and Local Government and Regulatory Authorities”, concluded Fan.
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About Zijin Mining Group
Zijin Mining Group is a multinational mining group principally engaged in the prospecting, exploration and mining of gold, copper and other mineral resources. The company owns significant mining investment projects in 14 provinces in China and in 11 countries globally, including large production mines such as the Fujian Zijinshan Gold and Copper Mine; the Heilongjiang Duobaoshan Copper Mine; the Porgera Gold Mine in Papua New Guinea, the Kolwezi Copper and Cobalt Mine in the DRC, the Bor Copper Mine in Serbia and the Buriticá Gold Mine in Colombia. The Company initiated the project management model of “integrating five ore treatment processes into one” and is one of the few multinational mining companies that have self-initiated technology and engineering management capabilities. In 2020, it achieved an operating income of USD 26.6 billion with total profits of USD 1.7 billion and total assets of USD 28.3 billion, ranking it No. 1 among the Chinese non-ferrous metal and gold companies, No. 3 global gold companies, and No. 7 global non-ferrous metal companies within the top 2000 “Forbes” Global Listed Companies. The company is also ranks 77th among the “Top 500 Chinese Companies” by Fortune in 2020.