(Kitco News) – Sibanye-Stillwater (NYSE: SBSW), one of the world’s largest primary producers of platinum group metals, today announced its attributable mineral resources and mineral reserves as at 31 December 2021.
The company reported stable mineral resources (89.6Moz 2E) and mineral reserves (27.3Moz 2E) at its US PGM operations, with minor increases of 3.1% and 1.5% respectively.
The company also posted a year-on-year reduction in both mineral reserves and mineral resources for its SA PGM operations; and the Cooke operation at its SA gold operations.
Sibanye said that this reduction was a result of a change in the basis of accounting for minority holdings from the effective accounting interest in mineral properties basis to the effective legal interest.
The company reported mineral resources of 174.7Moz 4E (a year-on-year decrease of 19.7%) and mineral reserves of 32.2Moz 4E (a year-on-year decrease of 18.5%) for its SA PGM operations.
The company also posted mineral resources of 74.6Moz and mineral reserves of 13.1Moz for its SA gold operations (including DRDGOLD), a 7.0% and 15.9% decline respectively.
This reduction was primarily due to the depletion and the exclusion of the De Bron Merriespruit project mineral reserves (pending an updated feasibility Study), partly off-set by an increase in secondary reef Mineral Reserves due to successful exploration outcomes at Driefontein.
The company also announced a maiden lithium mineral resource of 78.5Kt of LiO2, due to the inclusion of the attributable interests in the Keliber (26.6%) and Rhyolite Ridge (through the 7.12% holding in Ioneer) projects in Finland and the United States respectively.
In addition, Sibanye reported a maiden company zinc mineral reserve of 1,016.3Mlb due to the inclusion of the attributable interest (19.99%) in the New Century tailings retreatment operation in Australia.
Sibanye-Stillwater has established itself as one of the world’s largest primary producers of platinum, palladium, and rhodium and is also a top tier gold producer. It produces other PGMs, such as iridium and ruthenium, along with chrome, copper and nickel as by-products.
The group also indicated it has recently begun to build and diversify its asset portfolio into battery metals mining and processing and is increasing its presence in the circular economy by growing and diversifying its recycling and tailings reprocessing operations globally.
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Read More:Sibanye-Stillwater reports reduction in platinum group metals, gold reserves and resources in 2021
2022-03-02 20:03:00
