ANGLO American Platinum (Amplats) will gradually bring back production from one of its metal processing units at its Anglo Converter Plant (ACP) next week after closing the unit for a second time this year following detection of a new leak.
There would be no disruption to adjusted production guidance of 3.1 to 3.6 million ounces of platinum group metals (PGMs), the Anglo American controlled group said in a statement to the JSE. It would continue to receive concentrate from third parties and joint ventures under its purchase of concentrate (PoC) and toll agreements, and would continue to deliver metal to customers.
Production from ACP Phase B unit was stopped last week after a water leak had been detected in the high-pressure cooling section, requiring replacement of a water cooler tube. This unit had been in build up following a previous three-month stoppage owing to an earlier leak which Amplats said today was unrelated to the “localised” event in the cooling section.
In the meantime, other maintenance was being carried out and additional controls put in place whilst the ACP Phase B unit was off-line. This was in order to provide greater operational stability. “The repair work is expected to be completed next week, and recommissioning will then start once a detailed risk-based assurance process has confirmed it is safe to do so,” said Amplats CEO, Natascha Viljoen.
The company would take a prudent, step-by-step approach to starting up Phase B unit in which there would be “intermittent stoppages” to inspect the plant. This would continue until Phase A unit of the facilities was fully repaired, which was now expected to be at the end of this year rather than the first quarter of 2021 as previously forecast.
Phase A unit of the ACP has been shut since the end of January following an explosion of the facility.
Amplats said in April that refined metal-in-concentrate (M&C) production for 2020 would be 3.1 to 3.6 million in PGM 5E + gold production – a hefty one quarter reduction on previous guidance of 4.2 to 4.6 million oz. Previous refined production guidance was 3.3 to 3.8 million oz.
