First platinum and palladium available next week, Stillwater

The first platinum and palladium sponge produced from the Stillwater Mining mine’s sulphide concentrates will be available to sell on the open market in about a week. It was produced by the Metallurgie Hoboken-Overpelt smelter in Belgium. The first shipment of concentrates left the Montana mill last March. A mine dedication ceremony is planned for later this month.

It costs the company about $2,000(US) to ship a 20-ton load of concentrate by rail to New York then by ship to the European smelter. One shipment is made every two days. “They have told us that as long as we let them know in advance, they can handle all the concentrates we can ship them,” Chevron’s Gregg Hodges says.

Mill recoveries so far have been about 90% for both metals and costs are below $20 per ton. Smelter credits are given for nickel (2%), copper (1%), gold, silver and rhodium (all less than 1%).

A preliminary study by Manville concludes that to construct a smelter near the mine site at a cost of less than $10 million, could pay for itself in about two years.

The most likely site for another mine in the Johns-Manville Reef is in the valley formed by the west fork of the Stillwater River. This location, 10 miles to the west of the mine, is on ground shared by only Chevron and Manville. A mine here would be more difficult to develop for several reasons.

First, it lies at an elevation 2,000 ft higher than the east branch mine, so access would be more difficult. Currently there is no road onto the property. “We may or may not want Lac to join us on this venture,” Mannville’s Michael Sharratt says. A go-ahead decision on the project has not yet been made.