• Millsell in Ramp-Up to Full Production • Steelpoort Mechanically Complete and Wet Commissioning in Progress • PGM Off-take Agreement signed with RPM
The Directors of Sylvania Resources Limited are pleased to announce that Sylvania Minerals (Pty) Ltd, Sylvania’s wholly owned subsidiary, has now completed two PGM Recovery Plants (“PRP’s”). Furthermore, an off-take agreement has been concluded with Rustenburg Platinum Mines Limited, a subsidiary of Anglo American Platinum Corporation Limited (“Amplats”), for PGM concentrates produced by the Sylvania Millsell PRP.
The Millsell plant has been operating since Sunday 10th June 2007. Commissioning and early operations have gone very well with relatively few problems being experienced and only a few instrumentation and control issues still to be resolved. Production is presently ramping up with the full design level of 590 oz 4E PGM per month expected prior to the end of November. The Steelpoort plant is presently being wet commissioned and first production is expected before the end of August.
Sylvania achieved mechanical completion dates of 25 May and 31 July for Millsell and Steelpoort respectively, well ahead of the completion dates of June 2007 and October 2008 which had been proposed in the AIM admission document. In both cases, the construction work was completed only a month behind the aggressive fast-track schedules that had been set. Delays were mainly caused by late delivery of some equipment items and the refurbishment of the second hand ball mills taking longer than anticipated.
From start of construction to first production at Millsell took only 132 days, which the Board considers to be a quite remarkable achievement for a project of such complexity. In spite of later than anticipated completion, production at Millsell has been very close to budget. Cumulative production to end July was 186 oz 4E PGM versus the original Sylvania budget of 212 oz 4E PGM.
Detailed planning for the remaining two PGE flotation plants is on going and management are confident that civil construction on the third PGE plant is on track to start within the next three weeks, which is in line with original forecasts.
These projects have been developed in terms of a Services and Supply agreement between Sylvania and Samancor Limited (“Samancor”). The agreement gives Sylvania exclusive rights to extract chrome and PGM from Samancor’s chrome tailings with the retreatment facilities being built on Samancor property and where possible sharing Samancor’s infrastructure.
The Amplats off-take agreement covers the entire production from Millsell for the life of the operation. Payment terms and conditions are identical to the Amplats off-take agreement for the production from CTRP. Sylvania has a 25% interest in CTRP which is operated by Aquarius Platinum Limited.
Sylvania CEO, Terry McConnachie, comments that “successfully completing these platinum recovery plants marks real progress in Sylvania’s assertive growth plans. The cash flow generated by these projects will play a key part in Sylvania’s business growth model.”
The technical exploration and mining information contained in this report was compiled by Mr Ed Nealon, a Sylvania Resources Ltd director. Mr Nealon provides consulting services via his company Athlone International Pty Ltd. Mr Nealon is a member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and is considered to be a Competent Person in his respective area of expertise pursuant to the Australasian Code for Reporting of Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves. Mr Nealon consents to the inclusion in the report of the matters based on his information in the form and context in which it appears.
For further information please contact:
In South Africa: Terence McConnachie, CEO Sylvania Resources Limited (+27 11) 803 7214
In Australia: Mike Langoulant, Company Secretary Sylvania Resources Limited (+618) 9481 8711
In United Kingdom: Richard Brown Ambrian Partners Limited (+44) 20 7776 6417
Charlie Geller/Leesa Peters Conduit PR (+44) 20 7429 6604 or (+44) 7970 067 320
SLV Price at posting:
0.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
