Eastern Platinum has announced that it is planning to refurbish and relaunch a smelter in South Africa.

The company has revealed that the smelter would be able to provide a capacity of up to 600,000 ounces of platinum group metals (pgms) every year once it is fully operational.

Eastern Platinum said that the refurbished smelter at its Crocodile River mine would offer capacity of between 250,000 ounces and 300,000 ounces in the first two years, before pushing up to between 500,000 ounces and 600,000 ounces of pgms by the end of the fourth year.

Chief Executive Ian Rozier explained that the move is seen as necessary to cope with the anticipated increase in platinum mining in South Africa in the coming years.

Mr Rozier commented: "In light of the projected future demand for smelter capacity the CRM smelter provides the company with first mover advantage and places it in an extremely good position to be able to expand our interests in South Africa's PGM sector."

The company has estimated the cost of the resurrection of the smelter will cost in the region of R425 million.

Eastern Platinum has also announced recently that it is planning to increase its pgm output to 500,000 ounces by 2012.

Sources:

Eastern Platinum Limited: 600,000 oz pa PGM Capacity Upgrade Proposed for Crocodile River Smelter in South Africa, 8/05/07
http://www.ccnmatthews.com/news/releases/show.jsp?action=showRelease&searchText=false&showText=all&actionFor=650272

Eastern Platinum plans 600,000oz S.Africa smelter, 8/05/07
http://investing.reuters.co.uk/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=allBreakingNews&storyID=2007-05-08T144124Z_01_L0874567_RTRIDST_0_EASTPLATS-SMELTER.XML

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