A new shaft at a platinum group metals mine in South Africa’s Limpopo province has recorded a number of firsts and extended the life of mine by four decades.

Northam Platinum has inaugurated the ZARR6.3 billion No 3 shaft on the western extension of its Zondereinde PGM mine. Engineering News reports that it is the world’s first raise-bored PGMs personnel and materials shaft at 1 382m deep and 4.8m in diameter.

The western extension adds 3.6 km of mineable strike to existing mining operations and contains more than 20 million ounces of PGMs.

‘The hole in the ground was made by a machine with no people at risk. At this depth, this is the first time it has been done in South Africa,’ says Northam Platinum CEO Paul Dunne.

In an interview with Mining Review Africa, Northam GM Danny Gonsalves said the underground machinery will be powered completely by hydropower. ‘This is water under pressure that we use through gravity, without any other source of power, and actually gives us enough power to drive essentially the most important thing in underground mining, the rock drill. Northam is the first mine in the world to do this.’

‘While other miners have used hydropower before, it is usually combined with pneumatics.’

Designed to carry people as well as materials, the shaft enables easier access to the mining extension site, which is 4 km away from the main shaft complex.

The project involved the installation of surface infrastructure and steelwork involving 566 tons of structural steel – 380t in the headgear; 186t in the winder house; 36t of cladding; and 6 055 m² of cladding coverage.

The next phase, sinking the No 4 shaft, a rock shaft also marks a South African first.

‘At 1 500m, No 4 Shaft will set another world record. The refrigeration plant, designed to cool the 70 °C virgin rock temperatures and drive the hydraulic equipment, is also the single largest in the world,’ says Dunne.

The western extension is expected to add 600 new jobs at Zondereinde.

21 July 2026
Image: Unsplash