Wesizwe Platinum Ltd. said Sept. 30 that it decided to reduce the scope of engineering and construction works for the Bakubung platinum project in South Africa’s North West province due to commercial imperatives.

Wesizwe entered into an engineering and construction deal with Aveng Mining in September 2012 to further development at Bakubung.

The decision will bring the completion date of the agreement to May 2017.

Under the agreement, Aveng will be compensated on a revised payment deal, enabling the companies to jointly optimize costing on the project. The two companies have agreed to suspend their respective rights and entitlement associated with currently lodged adjudication and arbitration proceedings. Aveng remains liable and committed to complete the contracted works on the revised scope, timeline and conditions.

The completion of the first phase of commissioning of the project will be followed by the second phase, which is a multibillion-rand flat development scope that entails the planned capital footprint development, linked to production build-up to steady state in 2022.

The companies expect full production of the mine by 2021. Main commissioning is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2018.