Hotazel Manganese Mines (Pty) Ltd - Proposed Integration of the Mamatwan Mine and Middelplaats Mine Environmental Management Pro

BACKGROUND TO THE PROPOSED PROJECT
Hotazel Manganese Mines (Pty) Ltd (HMM) holds a Mining Right (MR) and Environmental Management Programme (EMPr) for the opencast manganese mine known as Mamatwan Mine (MMT Mine), which is operated by South32 (Pty) Limited (South32) and the mothballed underground mine known as the Middelplaats Mine (Middelplaats Mine). The MMT and Middelplaats Mines are located approximately 25 km south of Hotazel, in the John Taolo Gaetsewe District Municipality and Joe Morolong Local Municipality of the Northern Cape Province of South Africa.

As part of its on-going mine planning, HMM plans to operate the MMT and Middelplaats Mines as one entity where the ore mined at Middelplaats Mine will be processed at the MMT Mine sinter plant. The similarities in the ore allow both mines' ore to be processed into the same product and dispatched from the MMT Mine rail load-out station. HMM is therefore proposing to integrate the Middelplaats MR (30/5/1/2/2/10017 MR) and associated EMPr which was executed on 24 November 2021, with the MMT MR, which is a converted MR (NC5/3/2/629) which was executed on 21 November 2005.