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Writer's pictureAmaranthCX

South African PGM mining by numbers

Updated: Mar 23, 2021

AmaranthCX recently published the first edition of it South African Platinum Group Metals Map.

The map includes the boundaries of 53 mining and prospecting rights areas across the Western, Eastern and Northern limbs of the Bushveld Complex - consisting of:

  • 23 producing mining areas

  • 8 mines on care & maintenance

  • 2 mines in development

  • 5 mining rights granted, but unused

  • 15 exploration projects

The map includes 110 shafts and pits of which;

  • 49 shafts and 4 pits are in production

  • 29 are closed or mined out

  • 20 are on care & maintenance

  • 4 are in development

  • 4 are proposed, but not yet in development

The map also includes 46 Concentrator Plants (including 4 on care & maintenance and 1 proposed), 20 UG2 Chrome Recovery Plants and 56 Tailings Storage Facilities. Finally the map also includes 11 assorted smelters, base metal and precious metal refineries.


These facilities and rights areas are overlain on an illustrative geological map of the important zones of the Bushveld Complex and the postulated outcrop and sub-outcrops of the main PGM and chromite seams.

There was a period of dramatic change between the promulgation of the MPRDA in 2002 and the financial crises in late 2008, followed by further deal making in the mid-2010s and then the final consolidation by Sibanye Stillwater in more recent years.


After 20 years of accelerated change the map now shows the Bushveld Complex as a remarkably more settled place, at least as it relates to PGM miners, with the ground largely tied up by long term holders and with all shallow resources now subject to granted mining rights.


The map is available as a downloadable electronic map compatible with both Google Earth and Google Maps and can be purchased here.

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