Valterra Platinum to trial underground mining beneath Mogalakwena

Valterra Platinum has approved a feasibility study into an underground extension of its Mogalakwena mine in Limpopo, with trial mining at the Sandsloot pit due to start by late 2026. Sandsloot was chosen because its ore grades run higher than other parts of the five-pit open-cast complex, which alone accounts for close to half of Valterra's total PGM output.

The trial mining will run for around 18 months as part of the wider feasibility study, with a final investment decision targeted for the first half of 2027. If approved, the underground operation would be a bulk mechanised mine, potentially ramping up to between 3.6 and 4.5 million tonnes a year of throughput beyond 2030 and lifting Mogalakwena's concentrate production by an estimated 10% to 50%.

Why go underground at an open pit

Mogalakwena has long been prized precisely because it is mined from surface, avoiding the higher costs and safety risks of South Africa's deep, narrow-reef platinum shafts. But even the country's flagship open-pit operation is running into the geological reality that has pushed most of the industry deeper underground: the richest near-surface ore is being progressively worked out, and grades in the remaining open-pit reserves are declining. Project general manager Stephan Nothnagel has said the plan is to truck the first ore out of the top of the ore body once capital targets are met, a comparatively low-risk way of testing the underground opportunity before committing to full-scale development.

Betting on sustained demand

Valterra executives have pointed to more than just autocatalyst demand in justifying the project. Company representatives have highlighted the potential for platinum group metals in hydrogen electrolysers and fuel cells as a long-term source of demand growth, even as slower electric-vehicle adoption has kept internal combustion engines, and their catalytic converters, in the market for longer than once expected.

The Sandsloot project sits alongside a broader industry trend of platinum producers favouring brownfields extensions of existing mines over greenfields developments, a reflection of lingering caution about committing large amounts of capital until PGM prices prove they can hold their recent gains. For Valterra, extending Mogalakwena's life through underground mining would secure the future of its single most important asset without the execution risk of building a mine from scratch.

Sources

• Miningmx: Valterra to trial underground mining at Mogalakwena in 2026, 28 Jul 2025

Photo: Open-pit platinum mining operations of the kind used at Mogalakwena. Ryanj93, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.