Anglo American Platinum Limited |
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Precious Metals Refiners (PMR)
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PMR receives final concentrate from RBMR. The concentrate is refined into the respective platinum group metals (PGMs) and gold, to high degrees of purity. PMR's products are customised to meet market requirements..
SAFETY PERFORMANCE
PMR had six lost-time injuries in 2011.
Platinum salt sensitivity and rhodium salt sensitivity are major health risks at PMR. To mitigate these risks, the operation continued to implement world-class occupational and environmental exposure control standards.
PMR also implemented a comprehensive safety improvement plan focusing on procedures and risk assessments and a "zero harm" mindset.
PRODUCTION
At 2,504,519 platinum ounces, PMR's 2011 refined production increased by 0.2% or 5,054 ounces over production in 2010. Emphasis was placed on improving rhodium, ruthenium and osmium recoveries as part of asset-optimisation projects. Overall, these recoveries exceeded planned performance. Commissioning of an effluent-treatment plant that is environmentally friendly and energy efficient, and that incorporates advanced process control technology, was completed.
PRODUCT QUALITY
PMR strives for customer satisfaction on precious metals sold.
COSTS
As the result of inflation-related price increases on key input commodities and maintenance costs, PMR's cash operating costs for 2011 increased by 11% or R51 million to R530 million when compared with those for 2010. Linked to this, the cash cost per refined platinum ounce increased by 10% year-on-year.
CAPITAL EXPENDITURE
Capital expenditure - all of it stay-in-business expenditure - totalled R53 million for the year. Following the cancellation of the capacity increase project (CIP2) considerable effort was directed at the incremental removal of bottlenecks and the release of additional PMR processing capacity, in order to enhance capital efficiency and increase future flexibility in the accommodation of more varied metal-feed ratios.
PROJECTS
PMR effluent-treatment project
The effluent-treatment project is commissioned and operational. This project is a first in South Africa, involving installation of a mixed salt crystalliser, a two-stage calcium removal circuit, modification to the existing lime-treatment process and conversion of the double-effect effluent evaporator to a triple-effect crystalliser. Its sole purpose is to reduce, and eventually eliminate, the requirement for effluent dams, ultimately leading to their early rehabilitation at PMR.
OUTLOOK
Owing to the high fixed-cost nature of the operation and the projected increase in throughput, unit cash costs for 2012 are expected to increase marginally compared to those for 2011. PMR management's continuous drive to improve the refinery's operating efficiency should contain such increases to an absolute minimum.
