Pacific North West Capital Hopes For Big Increase in PGM Resource During Summer
Date: May 2, 2002
Fashions come and fashions go in mining. Last year in Canada attention switched from platinum group metals to diamonds and now gold holds the floor. Underneath it all, however, there are some solid long term projects which will not go away. And the fact that Anglo American Platinum, the biggest platinum producer in the world, committed another C$2.25 million to its joint venture with Pacific North West Capital on the River Valley project, near Sudbury in Ontario, at the beginning of this year confirms that this project should be taken seriously. Amplats has already earned a 50 per cent interest in the project and can increase its interest to 60 per cent by funding a feasibility study. If this proves robust it can earn another 5 per cent by taking it though to commercial production.
The Phase 5 programme, as it is called, will consist of 65,620 feet of diamond drilling and Pacific North West is acting as project manager. It started back in November and ten holes were drilled before Christmas. The aim is to expand significantly the previously reported mineral resources at Dana Lake which amounted to 7.74 million tonnes at 1.60g/t palladium , platinum and at Lismers Ridge, just to the south, where the current resource is 4.97 million tonnes grading 1.24g/t . Significant assay values were obtained from the first nine holes and not only was the mineralised zone expanded at Dana South, but a major I.P anomaly was delineated at Banshee Lake.
Those close to Pacific North West expect that the independent resource estimate of 593,000 ounces of platinum group metals announced last autumn will double as a result of this programme. This will not surprise analysts over much as it is known that this estimate was based on only a small part of the mineralised zone and the drill holes were shallow. This time they are going deeper and the zone is still open to depth. In February two drill rigs were operating on the property and 38 holes had been completed. By the end of May it was hoped that 80 holes would be completed bringing the total number of holes drilled on the property to about 220.
Last month also Amplats approved a C$1.25 million dollar budget for the 2002 exploration program on the Agnew Lake property. Pacific North West can earn a 50 per cent interest in this property from Platinum Group Metals, a company run by Michael Jones, which recently merged with New Millennium Metals Corporation founded by Marek Kreczmer and Frank Hallam of Tan Range. The Agnew Lake property is located 60 kms southwest of Sudbury, covers more than 22,500 acres and overlies the Agnew Lake layered mafic intrusion. This intrusion is a member of a suite of mafic complexes of similar age and composition in the Sudbury area known to host deposits of palladium, platinum, rhodium and gold in association with copper-nickel sulphide mineralisation. The prospective intrusive contact zone is almost twice the length of the contact at River Valley
The Agnew Lake drill programme for this year will comprise 30,000 ft of drilling to test further the 15 kms of intrusive contact for platinum group metals as well as copper and nickel. A deeper hole of around 4,000 feet will also be aimed at intersecting the full geological sequence of the intrusion and testing a significant gravity anomaly, located on the eastern side of the intrusion. In addition to testing the prospective mineralised area immediately above the basement contact, a detailed analysis of the deep hole core should help delineate prospective reef horizons higher in the stratigraphy.
"The best laid plans o' mice an' men gang aft a-gley", as the poet Robert Burns said. It should therefore be no surprise to those who have experienced Canadian weather to find that the drilling on the Phase 5 programme had to be suspended temporarily in mid March due to the spring break-up and in order to eliminate a backlog in assay results. It has now resumed, but the new resource estimate is not now likely to be announced before the end of August. As the date draws closer investors will be taking a closer look at Pacific North West caaapital and its expanding PGM plays.
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