Aquarius Platinum has unveiled plans for a new purpose built treatment plant at its Kroondal mine in South Africa.

The firm will lead a three-part consortium to treat chromite tailings, with the clean-up operation expected to boost pgm yield.

Each month the operation will treat 20,000 tons of chromite tailings at an average grade of 4 g of pgm per ton, providing around 20,000 oz of pgm in the first year - currently scheduled for 2005.

Aquarius CEO Stuart Murray commented: 'The project, albeit modest in size compared to our mines, is an all-round winner for the Aquarius group. The project capitalises on our experience in treating UG2 reef, a chromite bearing ore containing higher levels of pgm than the LG6 reef mined by our neighbours.'

'By reprocessing old dumps at Kroondal and further beneficiating discard streams from our neighbours, we will generate additional, profitable income with very limited risk,' he added.

The consortium is completed by GB Mining and Exploration and Sylvania South Africa, who will help develop the project.

Ultimately the trio say that production will rise to 28,000 ozs of pgms per year, providing a comparatively low cost source of platinum and palladium.