That's what I have been told too. But if you look at the company's data, they do not publish any reserve for PGM. This is from their web site:
Current geological reserves stand at over 19 million tonnes, averaging 2.82% nickel and 0.77% copper.
There is a 2,400 tonne per day milling operation on site. Approximately 130,000 tonnes per year of high grade nickel/copper concentrate are trucked 100 kilometres to Deception Bay and then shipped to Quebec City -- with an expected shipping season of at least eight months of the year, and a minimum of six shipments per year. From there, it is sent by rail to the smelter in Sudbury. The smelted matte material is then returned by rail to Quebec City for shipping overseas to Falconbridge's Norwegian refinery and on to customers.
Mining at Raglan is from open pits and an underground mine at Katinniq. This mine will annually produce a sulphide concentrate containing 21,000 tonnes of nickel, 5,000 tonnes of copper and 200 tonnes of cobalt, plus platinum group metals.
If they produce 5 g/t (100% recuperation), it means 4.38 million grams a year (2400tpd*365days*5g/t) or about 141,300 ounces troy a year.
This is a worth a lot more ($113 millions) than the 200 tonnes of cobalt ($6 millions) mentionned in their production records.
In their last press release, Novawest wrote:
Novawest's Raglan holding is a large assemblage in Northern Quebec encompassing several hundred square kilometres (84,500 acres) in the immediate vicinity of Falconbridge's Raglan mine, which is presently an important world source of nickel, palladium, platinum, cobalt and copper. Some of Canada's most significant palladium and platinum values are from the Raglan camp, with Novawest itself reporting palladium values up to 26.76 grams per tonne and platinum values up to 9.3 g/t from 1997 surface samples.
I don't want to distract you from the Sudbury area (or pump Frank Puskas stock), but I think that the Ungava area may be the next PGM play IF and only IF the 5 g/t is a valid data.
My brother is working at the Quebec city harbour. I should send him a sample bag and ask him to fill it with some concentrate or matte material from Raglan stockpiled there !!!!!(hehehehe)
JP |
