AfriOr
For the lazy one who did not bother to listen to AFO presentation:
Summary from Mine Web
AfriOre¦s .. focus on exploration of precious metal projects. .. one such project is looking extremely promising, in the form of the Akanani platinum group metals project on the northern limb of the Bushveld Complex in South Africa, Other project include the Dwaalboom advanced staged gold project in South Africa (an ex-Anglo American resource which will need further exploration to upgrade); and the Capricorn early stage exploration property in Namibia as well as greenstone gold mineralisation in Kenya.
Management has considerable experience in the precious metals sector. ...
The Bushveld is remarkably busy at present with over 40 projects in the hands of 25 mining companies, both major and junior and it is currently enjoying one of the largest phases of expansion and exploration in its history, which extends back by 80 years.
Most of the company¦s expenditure is currently concentrated on Akanani. The Akanani prospect has an unusually favourable mixture of grade, width, variability and flexibility. Akanani Mining has 100% prospecting rights over the property and AfriOre has an option to purchase up to 74% of Akanani Mining for a purchase price of 12 million Rand (C$2.4 million) and 1.5 million shares in AfriOre. AfriOre has elected to vest its full 74% of Akanani.
The property lies in the Central Section of the Platreef which is almost 50km in length, much of which used to be owned by Anglo American, but the major has gradually moved away, effectively relinquishing a number of farms of which Akanani have two (which are contiguous and adjacent to the Potgietersrust mine). Grades in the Central Section of the region are typically in excess of three to four grammes per tonne of four PGM, while they are considerably lower outside this Central Section. The original theory about the property was that the orebody dipped at 45¦, but the AfriOre drilling has demonstrated that the dip maybe considerably shallower than this.
The aim is to identify a resource of more than ten million ounces at grades in excess of four grammes per tonne PGE over v and here is the real kicker v widths in excess of five metres. This is extraordinary, by comparison with the narrow stopes elsewhere in most of the underground platinum mines. In addition, mineralisation is showing up at the relatively shallow 700 metre and 800 metre levels and it looks as if the company will not have to drill much deeper than 1,500 metres in order to establish a resource.
The drilling programme is currently on a 500 m spaced grid on 6,500 metres of strike and initially, at least, down to the 1,500 m contour. The original plan had been to drill the full 9,000 metres of strike, but the quality of the results over the first 6,500 metres is such that the company has changed plan and is now concentrating on the high grade southern priority area, in which the orebody has dips as low as 10¦ and 20¦. The preliminary cost estimate for 75 holes is C$15 million (US$12.6 million).
As readers may have noted from a recent press release, some of the grades and widths returned in this are extremely encouraging. One hole has thrown up a 29 metre intersection at a depth of 1,098m v 1,127m giving 7.82 grammes PGE, including 17.07 grammes over 6.74 metres and within that, 21.57 grammes over 4.97 metres. Drill results have been coming in for the past eight months and so far, each hole has hit Platreef mineralisation. Grade is remarkably consistent, both in the wide zones and in the high grade zone where in the latter zone at present appear to be comparable to the other PGM producers and this looks to be valuable rock.
In line with best practice, AfriOre is retaining independent consultants to monitor management and has appointed consultants to undertake preliminary conceptual mining and metallurgical studies. It looks safe to expect positive results from the drilling and reports from both when the resource estimate and the conceptual mining and metallurgical study are produced within the next few months. |
