Small quantities of silatrane, a highly toxic rodenticide previously unavailable in South Africa (and recently outlawed in mainland China for this task), were produced under the auspices of Project Coast. This was done at Delta G Scientific, the principal South African CW research and production facility, but tests were then performed on silatrane at Roodeplaat Research Laboratories (RRL), the main BW research, testing, and production facility. On at least one occasion, silatrane was nearly deployed to poison targeted enemies.

At the request of Delta G managing director Philip Mijburgh, Gert Lourens became involved in projects making derivatives of silicon and phosphate. One of the chemical substances he synthesized was parachlorophenyl silatrane, which he provided in powdered form to Mijburgh, who then sent it on to RRL for tests. Lourens was then asked by Mijburgh to collaborate with RRL scientists Dr. Mike Odendaal and Dr. James Davies in the testing process. They tested its solubility in water and then injected it into baboons, which according to a report they prepared afterwards (Basson Trial Exhibit 54D) resulted in the suffocation of the animals within 15 minutes and was not detectable after death. After producing poisons of this sort, Odendaal and Davies normally handed them over to Dr. André Immelman, RRL's R&D director. Odendaal also regularly provided Immelman with instructions concerning dosages and safety precautions for handling the dangerous substances he made. Immelman then stored these and other lethal materials inside a refrigerator in a bombproof, fireproof walk-in safe in his office.

On the purported instructions of Project Officer Wouter Basson, Immelman later secretly transferred silatrane and other highly toxic substances to military and police personnel through various channels. Some of these dangerous materials were provided to Dr. R. F. Botha (alternately known as "Koos", "Mr. R", and "Frans Brink") and thence to Vernon Lange (otherwise known as "Mr. T" and "Theo"), both of whom were operatives of the Civil Co-operation Bureau (CCB), a covert assassination unit operating under the aegis of the Special Forces (SF). Others were provided directly to Chris Smit, Gert Otto, and Manie van Staden, three Security Branch (SB) officers from the South African Police (SAP). According to the 1989 "sales list" (TRC document 52), as well as firsthand testimony at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings or Basson's criminal trial, Immelman passed such items on, either to the aforementioned persons in innocuous public places like restaurants, or to Basson himself in the latter's office at South African Medical Services (SAMS) headquarters in Centurion. Another reported recipient of RRL's poisons was Johnny Koortzen, an ex-South African Defence Force (SADF) psychologist who in 1988 assumed control over Systems Research and Development, a company that bioengineer Jan Lourens—no relation to Gert Lourens – had set up in part to manufacture special "applicators," i.e., arcane assassination devices. Some of these toxic materials and devices were subsequently used to assassinate designated "enemies of the state"—guerrillas in neighboring countries, troublesome prisoners, untrustworthy members of the security forces, or activists in the African National Congress (ANC) and other South African opposition groups.

Jan Lourens later testified that he had actually traveled to England, at Basson's request, in order to hand over two ampoules of "aryl-silatrane" and a British umbrella outfitted with a needle-type mechanism to Trevor Floyd, a member of the CCB. The plan was to inject silatrane into one of two key London-based ANC leaders, Pallo Jordan or Ronnie Kasrils. In the course of showing Floyd how to use the umbrella, Jan Lourens accidentally spilled some silatrane on himself, fainted, later woke up, drank some milk and antiseptic (Dettol), and then threw up. (If so, this probably saved him: silatrane induces convulsions, and without gastric lavage it is difficult to treat as there is no antidote.) Floyd later provided these deadly materials to a two-man Portuguese hit team, but in the end it proved impossible to carry out the assassination scheme. Basson subsequently denied sending Jan Lourens on such a mission, and openly ridiculed Lourens' account of spilling silatrane on himself. Basson's claims cannot be accepted at face value, however, given the South African penchant for using toxic substances to murder or sicken designated enemies. For example, under the rubric of "Operation Dual," a clandestine program initiated by the SADF in 1979, chemical agents were regularly used by the D[elta]40 and Barnacle units—the CCB's predecessors—to secretly eliminate prisoners and security risks. According to Johan Theron, the SADF's chief executioner, this program was sanctioned from the outset by General Fritz Loots, the first commander of the fledgling SF. With the establishment of the Teen-Rewolusionêre Inligting Taakspan (TREWITS: Counter-Revolutionary Intelligence Task Force) in the mid-1980s, the "Dual" assassination program was later expanded and coordinated at an even higher level.

In 1990 President F. W. De Klerk prohibited the carrying out of any further work on lethal CBW agents, and in 1993 Project Coast was officially terminated. The stocks of standard CW agents produced by South Africa were supposedly destroyed in conformity with international agreements, despite the fact that the actual destruction process was never independently verified. Although several chemical plants there continue to produce highly toxic substances for normal industrial and agricultural use, none of these substances appear to be intended for deployment as lethal anti-personnel agents. The current government still has access to the type of technical expertise and the sort of sophisticated R&D facilities that would enable it to initiate a new CW program, but there is little reason to suppose that it has any interest in doing so.

	Updated March 2004