Valterra Platinum is nearing a decision on whether to shift parts of its Mogalakwena operation in South Africa from open-pit mining to underground mining. Multiple outlets report that the company is at a late stage of evaluating an underground project known as Sandsloot, which has been under study for years.
Valterra runs what is described as the world’s largest open-pit platinum mine, and is also characterized as the world’s largest platinum group metals miner by market capitalization. Bloomberg frames the planned move as a way to access higher-grade ore by tunneling down, aligning with the company’s “value over volume” approach. While the outlets agree a decision is approaching, they differ mainly in emphasis—some highlight the project timeline reaching a critical point, while others focus on the strategic rationale for underground extraction and the company’s positioning in the platinum market.
