Mines in Brits, North West: Operators and Output

The working mines around Brits sit on the Western Limb of the Bushveld Complex, a layered igneous intrusion in South Africa’s North West province. They produce platinum-group metals (PGMs), chrome and vanadium, not gold. This page lists the operations that sources place in the Brits district or on the road towards Rustenburg, who runs each one and what the latest published figures show.

Brits is in the Madibeng Local Municipality, which Statistics South Africa counted at 522,566 people in the 2022 census, up from 475,796 in 2011 on today’s boundaries (Stats SA, Census 2022 municipal fact sheet). Mine news here matters to jobs, roads and water as well as to metal markets.

Mines in and around Brits at a glance

The table lists the operations covered below. “Status” is the position in the dated source named in the row, not a live check, so confirm with the operator before you plan a visit, a contract or a supply deal.

Gold is not on the list. None of the company reports, USGS tables or profiles used for this page names an operating gold mine at Brits. Older web pages that call Brits a gold area do not give a mine name or a source.

How we chose these operations

We kept an operation if a company filing, a regulator-style document or a mining profile places it in the Brits district or on the Brits to Rustenburg corridor, and if it has produced within the period covered by the source. We left out prospecting rights that have no published output, because a licence on paper is not a mine. We did not rank the operations, because they make different products and report in different units: ounces of PGMs, tonnes of chrome ore and tonnes of vanadium cannot be added together.

Where a metal needs a unit explained: a troy ounce (oz) is 31.1035 grams. “4E” means the four PGM-and-gold elements Sibanye-Stillwater reports (platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold). “6E” is the wider basket that Eastern Platinum reports, which adds ruthenium and iridium and is usually quoted with gold. Grade is the amount of metal per tonne of rock, here in grams per tonne (g/t).

Crocodile River Mine, 7 km south of Brits

Eastern Platinum (TSX: ELR) describes the Crocodile River Mine as a PGM mine 70 km north-northwest of Johannesburg and 7 km south of Brits, on the Western Limb in an area of structural complexity called the Brits Graben. The same release says the lease holds one operating section, Zandfontein, and two development sections, Crocette and Kareespruit (Eastern Platinum, technical report release, 20 May 2022).

The mine first re-mined the old Zandfontein tailings dam for PGM and chrome concentrates from December 2018 (2022 release). The company began processing underground ore from Zandfontein in the third quarter of 2024, and its Q2 2026 release describes current operations as mining and processing that underground ore. Tailings are the finely ground waste left after ore is processed. Re-mining them recovers metal and also removes a surface dump.

The second-quarter report for 2026, dated 13 August 2026, shows a hard period (Eastern Platinum, Q2 2026 results):

• Revenue was US$7.9 million, down 25.8% from US$10.7 million a year earlier.
• The mine operating loss was US$4.2 million (gross margin -53%), the operating loss was US$7.9 million, and the net loss attributable to shareholders was US$6.1 million.
• PGM output was 4,356 oz (6E) in the quarter and 9,146 oz in six months, from 810 and 1,826 tons of concentrate; the average 6E grade of the concentrate was 167 g/t in the quarter and 158 g/t in six months.
• Chrome concentrate was 14,921 tonnes in the quarter and 31,678 tonnes in six months, at an average 40.38% chromium in the quarter.
• About 78% of the quarter’s revenue came from PGM concentrate sold to Impala Platinum under related offtake agreements. An offtake agreement fixes a buyer and terms for future output.
• The working capital deficit was US$67.9 million at 30 June 2026, against US$362,000 of cash.

For a supplier or contractor the lesson is practical: the mine is operating, but the balance sheet is tight, so payment terms deserve a check. These are the company’s own figures, so read the full statements on SEDAR+ before relying on them.

Western Chrome Mines between Brits and Rustenburg

Samancor Chrome works two mining centres. The Eastern Chrome Mines are in Mpumalanga and the Western Chrome Mines lie near Rustenburg and Brits in North West province. A Mining Technology profile from 2013 says both centres have five underground mining areas with hoisting shafts, that the western unit also has an open-cut mine using 40-tonne trucks, and that capacity across both is about 5.8 million tonnes of run-of-mine ore a year (Mining Technology, Samancor chrome mines profile). Run-of-mine (ROM) ore is ore as it leaves the mine, before crushing and screening.

Chart

South Africa mines 45% of the world’s chromite

Chromite mine production, million tonnes, 2025 estimate, selected countries

The profile is old. Samancor’s own site now lists the Western Chrome Mines as three underground mines, two surface beneficiation plants and two tailings re-treatment plants near Mooinooi, close to its Dikwena Chrome site just outside Brits. It gives no output figure, so ask Samancor for current output.

On 13 August 2026 the north wall of Compartment 1B at Samancor’s Dikwena Chrome tailings facility near Brits failed at about 5.30 pm and released almost all the tailings stored in that compartment. The government reported no casualties. It said the slimes damaged mine infrastructure, a railway line and Eskom power lines and polluted an unnamed tributary, and that the Department of Water and Sanitation verbally ordered the mine to stop depositing tailings in any of its dams while it investigates with the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources (SAnews, 17 August 2026). Tailings are the finely ground waste from ore processing, usually stored behind walls as a wet slurry. The investigation was still open at the time of that report, so treat any cause you read elsewhere as unconfirmed.

South Africa leads world chromite supply: the USGS puts mine production at 23 million tonnes in 2025 (estimate), 45% of a 51 million tonne world total, and holds 350 million tonnes of ore in reserve, no more than 29% of the world’s (USGS gives the world figure as more than 1,200 million) (USGS, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026, chromium). Chromite is the ore of chromium, used mainly in stainless steel.

Sibanye-Stillwater at Rustenburg, Kroondal and Marikana

West of Brits, Sibanye-Stillwater runs the Rustenburg (including Kroondal) and Marikana PGM operations. Its operating results for the six months to 30 June 2026, issued on 1 September 2026, list “Rustenburg including Kroondal” at 412,690 oz of 4E PGMs (389,570 underground plus 23,120 from surface sources) and Marikana at 309,034 oz (305,041 underground plus 3,993 surface). Those totals are our sums of the reported lines. Marikana’s K4 underground output rose 24%, or 10,557 oz, while surface output at Marikana fell 67%, which the report ties to lower grade and recovery from a new feed source (Sibanye-Stillwater, Form 6-K for H1 2026).

The same report puts group chrome production at 951 thousand tonnes, down 18%, because the Marikana bulk tailings treatment chrome plant closed in the second half of 2025. Chrome is a by-product of PGM mining on this part of the Bushveld, which is why PGM companies and chrome miners often work the same reef.

Vametco, the vanadium mine near Brits

Vametco is an integrated vanadium mine and processing plant near Brits that makes the steel additive Nitrovan, according to a 2018 trade report on its expansion (African Mining Network, July 2018). Vanadium is a metal added to steel for strength and used in large batteries.

The ownership picture has changed. Bushveld Minerals entered business rescue in November 2024. By 14 April 2025 its practitioners expected the likely result to be a sale of the South African entities, Vametco’s mine and plant had not restarted, and the parent said it would go into liquidation and leave the AIM market (Miningmx, 14 April 2025). The practitioners’ report of 30 September 2025 says the business rescue plan was adopted on 25 June 2025, operations were being moved to care and maintenance and retrenchments were finalised (Matuson & Associates). Treat Vametco as an idle asset in a sale process until a buyer or restart is announced; we found no buyer or restart report after that.

South Africa’s vanadium output has fallen with it: the USGS estimates 5,000 tonnes in 2025, down from 8,050 tonnes in 2024, in a world total of 110,000 tonnes (USGS, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026, vanadium).

What the Bushveld rock holds: platinum, chrome and vanadium

The reason these mines cluster here is geology. The Bushveld Complex holds the world’s largest PGM resources and reserves, and the USGS lists South African PGM reserves at 63,000 tonnes out of more than 76,000 tonnes worldwide, about 83% (USGS, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026, platinum-group metals). Eastern Platinum, in its technical report release, says the Bushveld hosts about 80% of the world’s PGM-bearing ore. Reserves are the part of a deposit that can be mined at a profit under stated prices and costs; resources are larger and less certain.

Chart

PGM mine output slipped from 2024 to 2025

Mine production, tonnes, selected producers

Chart

South Africa mines most of the world’s platinum

Platinum mine production, tonnes, 2025 estimate

The charts below use the USGS 2026 summaries. Figures for 2025 are estimates. The first shows who mines platinum, the second compares South African output with selected other producers between 2024 and 2025, and the chrome chart, for selected countries, sits with the Western Chrome Mines section above.

The 2025 estimates point down. South Africa’s platinum output is put at 120 tonnes, from 126 tonnes in 2024, and palladium at 70 tonnes, from 82.6 tonnes. The USGS notes that it revised the 2024 South African figures using company and government reports, so compare only numbers taken from the same edition. For a mine near Brits the practical reading is that the sector is not growing fast, which fits the tight margins in the Eastern Platinum results.

What a month of PGM ore could be worth

A mine’s output is easy to misread, because the grade of the ore, the share of metal the plant recovers and the share the buyer pays for are three different numbers. The calculator below multiplies them for a month of ore. Use your own tonnage, grade and price. The defaults are round examples, not figures for any mine near Brits. The 167 g/t grade quoted above is for concentrate, not for ore, so do not enter it as the ore grade.

How to read a mine’s results before you rely on them

Mining reports use a handful of terms that change the meaning of a headline number. Check these five before you compare two operations.

• Head grade versus concentrate grade. Head grade is the metal content of the ore going into the plant, a few grams per tonne for PGMs. Concentrate grade is what leaves the plant after most of the rock is removed, and it is far higher. Eastern Platinum’s 167 g/t is a concentrate figure.
• Recovery. The share of the metal in the ore that the plant captures. The rest goes to tailings.
• Payable share. The share of the metal in a concentrate that the buyer pays for under the offtake terms. It is below 100% because smelting and refining lose metal and charge fees.
• Basket price. PGM mines sell several metals at once, so reports quote a blended price per ounce for the basket. It moves with the mix of platinum, palladium and rhodium, so two companies can show different basket prices on the same day.
• Underground versus surface sources. Sibanye-Stillwater separates ore mined underground from material reclaimed from surface dumps. Surface output falls as dumps are used up, as the 6-K notes for Rustenburg.

Who buys the metal from the Brits mines

PGM concentrate from the Crocodile River Mine goes to Impala Platinum, which smelts and refines it. Eastern Platinum reports that about 78% of its second-quarter revenue came from this one customer, so a change in those terms moves the whole business. Chrome is sold on a different basis; the 2022 technical report says chrome ore from the re-mined tailings is sold on a cost-plus basis, and that its reserve price for chrome follows the offtake agreement.

Most mined chromite goes into ferrochrome and then stainless steel, which is why chrome demand follows stainless output. The USGS names stainless and heat-resisting steel producers as the main users of ferrochromium. Vanadium goes mainly into steel as well, so all three Brits-area products depend on the steel and car-catalyst markets rather than on local demand.

▶ What mining does for an economy: exports, jobs, revenue and energy-transition minerals. · 5:03

Checks to run before working near a Brits mine

1. Which company holds the mining right on this farm portion, and is it in force?
2. What does the latest company report say about output, costs and cash?
3. Is the operation producing, on care and maintenance, or in a sale process?
4. Who buys the output, and on what terms?
5. What closure and rehabilitation money has been set aside, and under which regulation?
6. Who do you contact on site, and what written permission do you need to enter?

Land, water and closure rules around the mines

Mining changes the ground it sits on. Waste rock, tailings and open cuts alter drainage and use land that others may want, and in the Brits area they sit next to a municipality of more than half a million people. Our video on the seven environmental impacts of mining explains the general effects in plain words.

The rule that decides who pays for repair is South Africa’s financial provision regulation under the National Environmental Management Act. Mine owners must set aside money for rehabilitation, for closure and for damage that only shows up later. A February 2022 note from an insurer says a replacement for the 2015 regulations had been under negotiation since 2015 and was not yet final; we found no later report that it is in force, so check which text applies before you cite it (Guardrisk, mining rehabilitation regulations).

Tailings safety is part of the same picture. The Dikwena failure near Brits in August 2026, described above, shows why regulators look at tailings walls and why the Department of Water and Sanitation took water samples from the affected watercourse.

Tailings re-mining, as at the Crocodile River Mine, is one way a site gets smaller and the metal in the dump is sold. It does not remove the need for closure planning, and the figures in the technical report assume stated metal prices and costs.

▶ The seven environmental impacts of mining, explained in clay. · 2:31

Mining rights: who holds the ground

Mineral rights are administered separately from ownership of the surface land. The Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources runs the register, and a Business Report article describes a new national mining cadastre, a digital map of rights, that is being rolled out to replace the SAMRAD database, with the Western Cape as the pilot (Business Report, June 2026). Which provinces are live changes, so ask the department for the position in North West.

For a consultant, the checks that save money are simple: confirm who holds the right on the exact farm portion, check whether it is in force, and read the environmental authorisation attached to it. Our guide to the number of mines in South Africa by province shows how many sites the register lists in each region, and our overview of platinum mines in South Africa covers the larger operators.

Checking ground near Brits with satellite data

Satellite images do not show what is under a lease, but they do show change on the surface: new pits, tailings footprints, bare ground and vegetation. A consultant can compare dates to see how fast a dump is growing before a site visit. Farmonaut turns a licence boundary into a satellite mineral-detection report, and its output is an exploration target, not a resource estimate. If you want a quote for a boundary near Brits, use the mining query form, or read about satellite-based mineral detection.

▶ Remote sensing for mining in three minutes. · 2:01

Related reading on this site: Copper Smelters in North America: List and Output.

We cover a connected topic in Acid Mine Drainage in South Africa: Basins, Costs, Fixes.

Frequently asked questions

What mines are near Brits in North West?

The Crocodile River Mine (PGMs and chrome) lies 7 km south of Brits, Samancor’s Western Chrome Mines run between Brits and Rustenburg, and Sibanye-Stillwater’s Rustenburg, Kroondal and Marikana PGM operations lie to the west. Vametco, a vanadium mine near Brits, entered business rescue in November 2024 and moved to care and maintenance in 2025.

What is mined around Brits?

PGMs (platinum, palladium, rhodium and related metals), chrome and vanadium. All three come from layers of the Bushveld Complex. The USGS table puts South Africa at 120 of about 170 tonnes of world platinum mine output in 2025 (estimate).

Is there a gold mine in Brits?

No source used for this page lists one. Gold appears in PGM reporting as one of the four elements in “4E”, but it is a small part of the basket and not the target.

Who owns the Crocodile River Mine?

Eastern Platinum Ltd, listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange as ELR, reports the mine in its 2026 quarterly results. It sells PGM concentrate to Impala Platinum under offtake agreements.

Is Vametco still operating?

No. Its business rescue plan was adopted on 25 June 2025 and the practitioners’ report of 30 September 2025 says operations were moving to care and maintenance. Miningmx reported on 14 April 2025 that a sale of the South African entities was the likely outcome. We found no buyer or restart report since, so check with the practitioners before you rely on it.

How big is Brits and the Madibeng municipality?

Stats SA counted 522,566 people in Madibeng in the 2022 census, up from 475,796 in 2011 on current boundaries, a rise of about 10%.

What do 4E and 6E mean in PGM reports?

They are baskets of metals reported together. 4E is platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold; 6E adds ruthenium and iridium. Always check which basket a figure uses before comparing two companies.

Why does chrome appear in PGM mine reports?

On the Bushveld the PGM-bearing reefs sit with chromitite layers, so plants can recover chrome as a by-product. Sibanye-Stillwater reported 951 thousand tonnes of chrome for the first half of 2026, and Eastern Platinum sold 31,678 tonnes of chrome concentrate.

How do I find out who holds a mining right on a farm?

Ask the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources, which keeps the register. The old SAMRAD database is being replaced by a new national cadastre, so the route depends on the province.

Can I visit a mine near Brits?

Mine sites are private and controlled. Contact the operator’s community or communications office first, and never enter a lease area without written permission.