Amplats rebuilds ACP unit ahead of schedule

Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) has completed the rebuild of its Anglo Converter Plant (ACP) Phase A unit ahead of schedule. after it was damaged in an explosion in February.

Image: Anglo American

The first converter matte is ready to dispatch to the company's base metals refinery for the next stage of processing. The ACP Phase A is now in ramp-up and on track to be operating at full capacity by the end of the year.

The ACP has been plagued with problems this year, besides the explosion in the Phase A unit, the second unit was shut down due to a water leak.

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“The ACP operations and projects teams have done an extraordinary job in safely completing the rebuild and recommissioning of the ACP Phase A unit. We were able to procure and deliver long lead-time items to site six months ahead of schedule, despite the impact of Covid-19 on supply chains, enabling us to bring forward the rebuild to the end of 2020, ahead of our initial expectations of Q2 2021," says Natascha Viljoen, CEO of Anglo American Platinum.

As a result of the early completion and a safe and stable restart, the company has upgraded refined production guidance for 2020 to between 2.6 – 2.7 million PGM ounces (previously c.2.5-million PGM ounces). Sales volumes have also been upgraded to c.2.8-million PGM ounces, as minor metal refined inventories have been drawn down. The release of the work-in-progress inventory built up in 2020 is expected to take up to 24 months.