About us

The Marico Chrome Mine is situated deep in the northern parts of the North West province, in the heart of the Marico Bushveld, some 65 kilometers north of Zeerust. The mine, which is noted for ore of exceptional quality, currently produces approximately 96 000 tons per annum. The high grade ore is mostly exported and processed for refractory and foundry. The predominant minerals within the Marico Bushveld are chromite and magnetite. The beneficiation plant currently produces 30 000 tons per annum.

The strata in which the chromite seams appear, are part of an isolated satellite of Bushveld rocks situated to the west of the main Bushveld Igenous Complex. The area around the present mine was first mapped geologically in 1920, but chromite seams were not identified. It was only in 1942 that chromite in the form of lumps and loose 'float' was found on the farm Strydfontein. Exploitation of the chromite began during the 1950's. Early mining was fairly primitive. Bulldozers were used to remove the semi-weathered overburden from the ore, which was then pushed up into piles, and then hand-cobbed down to a saleable lumpy product.

During these early days, explosives were not used, and when the overburden became too solid to handle with bulldozers, mining was simply carried on further along the subcrop of the seam. It was soon realised that the ore from this deposit was superior in quality to that being worked in the remainder of the Transvaal, in that it had a chrome to iron ratio in excess of 2:1. As the demand for more refined products grew, it became necessary to introduce a beneficiation process to recover and concentrate the finer fractions of ore remaining in the 'waste' generated by the cobbing operations. A plant incorporating diamond pans was erected to separate the finer ore. This system was further refined in later years by the addition of spiral concentrators. These activities, however, demanded a substantial supply of water. An aquifer bearing large volumes of water was eventually located some four kilometers away from the plant.

Meanwhile, more stringent ore specifications were being demanded by the market. This demand created the need for a higher level of mine planning, to ensure availability and production of ore to a constant quality and quantity. Extensive exploration was carried out to delineate remaining 'open castable' reserves, and an integrated fleet of earth moving equipment replaced the bulldozer operations, allowing ore to be extracted at greater depth. Ongoing modifications to the ore processing operations resulted in more efficient recoveries of the different grades of concentrate.