International Ferro Metals said that construction of the chrome re treatment plant being built by Anglo Platinum was on schedule to supply UG2 chrome concentrate from January 2012. This is after delays have pushed out the commissioning of the plant by about six months.

Construction on the CRP was expected to commence in June 2010 with commissioning to follow 12 months later but IFM now expects to only receive concentrate at the beginning of 2012. The primary objective of the CRP is to extract chrome concentrate from the UG2 tailings at Anglo Platinum's Waterval section.

In terms of the original agreement between IFM and Anglo Platinum, IFM will be entitled to 15,000 tonnes of chromite per month at no cost other than the cost of transporting the concentrate to its facilities at Buffelsfontein, which is about 50 kilometers from the CRP. This is expected to significantly reduce IFM's input cost.

The 15,000 tonnes per month represents almost 30% of the company's current concentrate requirements and the effective cost of the concentrate will be significantly below the company's in house mining cost. The contract endures for ten years from commencement of the project, which means that IFM will receive concentrate for at least eight years.

IFM said that "This new source of chromite supply for our two furnaces will reduce our input cost and will enable us to better leverage the improving ferrochrome market conditions."

IMF also said that ferrochrome production increased by 9% to 51,446 tonnes in the three months to end March 2011. The company produced 47,054 tonnes in the December quarter. Production was, however, 5% lower than the corresponding period of last year when the production was 52,394 tonnes.

(Sourced from www.businesslive.co.za)