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Gold/Mining/Energy : AVL.V - AVALON VENTURES -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RMF who wrote (548)	2/27/1998 1:10:00 PM
From: DRT	Respond to of 1474

In light of the invitation to PDAC and the number of key people coming in for the event, I would think the goal would be to have the Wolf Mt. assay results prior to PDAC, starts March 8 (of course, that really depends on how busy the assay labs are this time of year). As for economic grades, that is a difficult one to answer. It depends on the geology - grades, metallurgy, characteristics of the deposit (width, depth, thickness), etc. For example, the Bushveld Igneous Complex in South Africa (10 producing mines with the largest known deposits of platinum group metals (PGMs) - platinum, palladium, rhodium, ruthenium, iridium and osmium), is comprised of 3 flat lying reefs - Merensky, UGE Chromite layer and the Platreef - each of which is about 200 meters below the other with different characteristics and different platinum-palladium-other metal content ratios. The main source of PGMs in S.A. - the Merensky Reef varies in thickness from 0.5 metre to several metres and is exploited via underground mining techniques. Some examples: 1. The largest PGE mine in S.A. - Amplats Rustenburg Platinum Mines (RPM) produced 1,500,000 oz platinum, 677,000 oz palladium, 130,000 oz rhodium, 12,900 t nickel and 6,400 t copper in 1997, at a combined PGM equivalent grade of 5.68% and a cost of $233/oz of refined platinum. This is certainly not the typical mine size. 2. Stillwater, in the U.S., produced 271,000 oz of palladium and 84,000 oz platinum at a cost of $207/oz refined platinum in 97. 3. Anglo American Zimbabwe just announced plans to build to a $70 million platinum mine in Shurugwi to produce 118,000 oz of PGM and 2,500 t nickel and copper a year, with a 20 year mine life. 4. The largest PGM deposit in Russia, Noril'sk Nickel Kombinat (the world's largest producer of palladium) produces up to 2 million oz of palladium annually - PGM is recovered as byproducts of nickel production. 5. AMPLATS Leplats mine produced 80,200 oz platinum, 34,200 oz palladium, 4700 oz rhodium, 1160 t nickel and 664 t copper in 1997. The point being many factors other than just economies of scale determine mine feasibility. Just my opinion, but any combination of significant intersections (0.5+ metres), gold-comparable grades for combined PGE, and/or the presence of sulphides would likely warrant Phase 2 drilling. DRT