New blasting, smelting methods available to boost platinum – Robinson

The introduction of new methods of blasting and smelting have the potential to boost platinum mining significantly, says research commentator Dr R E (Robbie) Robinson. Robinson tells Mining Weekly Online in the attached video interview that the introduction of selected blast mining (SBM) in platinum mining, as with narrow-reef gold mining, requires negligible change to become operative. The one-time National Institute for Metallurgy, now Mintek, director says it has the potential to boost the economic viability of narrow-reef platinum mining dramatically in the short term.