09:08 AM EDT, 10/03/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Eastern Platinum Limited ( ELRFF ) , which rose 11% on the TSX yesterday, on Thursday announced that it has been advancing the commissioning activities of its platinum group metals (PGM) processing plant at the company's flagship Crocodile River Mine (CRM) located within the Bushveld Complex, host to near 80% of the world's PGM-bearing ore, in northeastern South Africa.

Among highlights cited in a statement, ELR said commissioning of the processing plant (Circuit B) is ongoing and the plant has begun processing Run-of-Mine (ROM) UG2 ore from the Zandfontein underground operations at the CRM; and a total of 75,000 tons of ROM ore was blasted up to October 1, 2024, with approximately 22,000 tons of the ROM ore processed in September.

Among other highlights, it said Zandfontein underground operations will produce 40,000 tons of ROM ore per month by the end of 2024, as previously guided. The next ramp up phase will lift production to 70,000 tons of ROM ore per month by the end of 2025. Eastplats' Circuit B has a ROM ore processing capacity of 1,000,000 tons annually. Also, up to 185,000 tons of underground ROM ore from Zandfontein is expected to be blasted and processed in 2024.

Wanjin Yang, Chief Executive Officer and President of Eastplats, in the statement said. "This operational milestone marks our transition from a tailings storage facility chrome recovery operation to a growing PGM concentrate and metallurgical chrome concentrate producer, and we look forward to reporting PGM and metallurgical chrome revenues from the Zandfontein underground section as ROM ore tonnages ramp up."

The company said it will continue to process historical tailings to recover chrome from its chrome retreatment project, at the Crocodile River Mine, but expects this to wind down in the early part of 2025. Following the conclusion of this project, Eastplats expects to complete the second phase of its tailings storage facility program to recover chrome and PGMs from tailings generated from the newly operating Zandfontein underground. By 2026, PGM revenue is expected to account for 65% or more of Eastplats' total revenue.

ELR rose $0.02 to $0.20 on the TSX yesterday.