Hello jrhana
Off the wire:
Agnew Lake Joint Venture Update
Monday December 15, 10:01 am ET
VANCOUVER, Dec. 15 /CNW/ - The Agnew Lake Joint Venture Management Committee has approved a Fall/Winter 2003 exploration program for the Agnew Lake Pt-Pd Property to be funded by partner Anglo American Platinum Corporation Limited. The approved program will include surface mapping and geophysical surveys designed to investigate two strong electromagnetic conductors detected by a recent SPECTREM airborne geophysical survey of the Agnew Lake Property. SPECTREM is a proprietary high-resolution airborne geophysical system developed by the Anglo American group of companies. The Agnew Lake Property hosts the Agnew (Shakespeare-Dunlop) Intrusion and is located 70 kilometers west of Sudbury, Ontario. The Agnew Intrusion is part of an Archean mafic intrusive suite, which includes the River Valley Intrusion located 60 kilometers east of Sudbury. Anglo Platinum is also exploring the River Valley Intrusion in a separate joint venture with Pacific North West Capital Corp. (PFN).
Available geological mapping in the vicinity of the recently identified conductors indicate they are located at or near the contact of the Agnew Intrusion, in an area not previously explored by the joint venture. A number of younger mafic dykes are also present in close proximity to the two conductors, which are both overburden covered. The stronger of the two conductors is located 400 metres northwest of a known Pt-Pd showing which has returned grades of up to 15.6 g/T Pt+Pd hosted within one of the younger (Nipissing) dykes. This showing has never been drill tested. The Nipissing intrusive suite is known to host significant Ni-Cu-PGE mineralization and is the target of several exploration programs in the Agnew Lake area.
The mapping and ground geophysical program, which is currently underway, will provide the necessary information to prepare the two targets for drilling testing. A drilling budget to test the two features will be prepared and presented to the Joint Venture Management Committee once the results of the current program have been received and interpreted with a goal of drill testing the two conductors in early 2004. Initial follow-up prospecting by PTM has resulted in the discovery of a narrow high-grade zone of Au-Ag mineralization located in close proximity to one of the two EM conductors. Grab samples from the discovery showing of the new "V" zone returned Gold values ranging from 156 parts per billion (ppb) to 76.2 grams per tonne (2.45 ounces Au per tonne) and 0.7 to 206 grams per tonne Silver (6.62 ounces Ag per tonne). The precious metal mineralization is associated with a sulphide-bearing quartz vein system located along the contact between a gabbro dyke and argillaceous sediments 140 metres from the interpreted center of the Spectrum Airborne EM anomaly.
Anglo Platinum may earn a 49.5% interest in the Agnew Lake Property by funding $6,000,000 in exploration and may increase their interest to 60% by completing a feasibility study and providing production financing. PFN is the operator of the Agnew Joint Venture. Platinum Group Metals (PTM) and PFN will each retain a 19.5% interest in the project should Anglo Platinum complete its earn-in obligations.
To date Anglo Platinum has funded approximately C $2,500,000 in exploration on the Agnew Lake Property. PTM and PFN have agreed to extend Anglo Platinum's requirement to fund a cumulative total of C $4,000,000 in exploration on the project until December 2004. Exploration activities at Agnew Lake in 2003 included drilling, mapping, prospecting, and airborne geophysics.
Qualified Person and Quality Control and Assurance
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The sample results from the V Zone were obtained from samples collected and transported by Mr. Darin Wagner, M.Sc., P.Geo, Exploration Manager for Platinum Group Metals, to ALS-Chemex's preparation facilities in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Mr. Wagner has acted as the Qualified technical person for this release. Initial results from the V Zone discovery were obtained by fire assay with an ICP-MS finish for Au and by ICP-MS for Ag. Repeat analysis by fire assay with a gravimetric finish for Au and by standard aqua regia digestion and atomic absorption analysis for Ag confirmed the high-grade nature of the mineralization. The reported Pt-Pd results were assayed by standard fire assay by XRAL labs of Don Mills, Ontario. These samples were collected by BP Canada and relied on the lab's standard quality control procedures. The results were found to be repeatable in duplicate sampling by a third party and are believed to be reliable.
Regards
Vaughn |
