Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. announced an optimized development plan for the Platreef project in South Africa which de-risks initial production and accelerates the asset?s Phase 2 expansion by up to three years. Under the revised development plan, Ivanhoe will re-purpose ventilation Shaft 3 for hoisting at a rate of 3 million tonnes per annum (?Mtpa?) and increase the size of the initial Phase 2 concentrator to 3.3 Mtpa (previously 2.2 Mtpa), bringing site-wide processing capacity to 4.0 Mtpa. Shaft 3 is expected to be ready for hoisting in the fourth quarter of 2025.

An updated feasibility study (the ?Updated FS?), accelerating and optimizing the development of Phase 2, is expected to be completed and published in the second half of 2024. In addition, Ivanhoe continues to advance construction of the 10 metre-diameter Shaft 2 at Platreef, which will contribute additional hoisting capacity of 8.0 Mtpa. In conjunction with the advancement of Shaft 2 and the Updated FS, Ivanhoe is undertaking a preliminary economic assessment (?PEA?) for Phase 3 expansion, increasing total processing capacity at Platreef to approximately 10.0 Mtpa.

Phase 3 is anticipated to rank Platreef as one of the world?s largest and lowest-cost platinum-group metals, nickel, copper, and gold operations. The processing capacity of the Phase 3 expansion will be 12.5 times greater than that of Phase 1 and 2.5 times greater than the optimized Phase 2 expansion. Construction of Platreef?s Phase 1 concentrator is advancing on schedule and is over 80% complete and is on track for cold commissioning in the third quarter of 2024.

Hot commissioning and ramp-up of production is planned for early 2025.