South Atlantic Ventures buys Outokumpu’s stake in PGE deposit

Vancouver —South Atlantic Ventures (SAA-V) has inked a deal with Outokumpu to acquire Outokumpu’s 49% interest in the Arctic Platinum partnership in Finland.

According to the terms of the agreement, South Atlantic will pay Finland’s Outokumpu US$23 million in cash and US$8 million in shares, for an aggregate consideration of US$31 million.

The Arctic Platinum partnership (APP) is a exploration and development agreement between Gold Fields (GFI-N) and Outokumpu that was established to explore an extensive land package in northern Finland. The APP currently holds three mining licenses and 342 claims with a total area of 305 sq. km.

“The acquisition of 49% of APP further enhances South Atlantic’s position as a growing leader in base and precious metals development and exploration, focused in the Scandinavian region.” commented Ted Posey, President of South Atlantic. “The continued exploration and development potential that exists with these and several other deposits in the APP land package makes this acquisition a cornerstone asset for South Atlantic in the years to come."

"This transaction is a continuation in Outokumpu’s strategy to move further down stream in the metals business. We have found a good home in South Atlantic Ventures for our share in APP. I have all the confidence on the success of this project, and the fact that we will take South Atlantic shares as part of the payment gives us the possibility to benefit from the potential up-side of the project," said Jyrki Juusela, CEO of Outokumpu.

Gold Fields has earned its 51% interest in January 2002 when its had spent a total of US$13 million on exploration. To date, the partners have completed a large scale drilling campaign that focused on a number of primary nickel, copper and PGE deposits. The Suhanko mining license, situated 60 km south of the regional capital city of Rovaniemi, is currently the subject of an ongoing feasibility study and Environmental impact Assessment. Proposed development will initially focus on an open pit mining operation of the Konttijarvi and Ahmavaara deposits. Mining of the SK Reef for supplementary feed to the Suhanko processing plant is also being considered.

As of August 2002, resources above a 0.5 gram per tonne combined platinum, palladium and gold cut off are as follows;

• The Konttijarvi deposit hosts 54 million tonnes averaging 1.44 grams palladium, 0.40 grams platinum, 0.10 gram gold and 0.16% copper and 0.06% nickel.
• The Ahmavaara deposit host 99.8 million tonnes averaging 1.10 grams palladium, 0.23 grams platinum, 0.14 gram gold and 0.22% copper and 0.09% nickel.
• The Ahmavaara East deposit hosts 29.8 million tonnes averaging 0.83 gram palladium, 0.18 gram platinum, 0.11 gram gold, 0.17% copper and 0.06% nickel.
• The SK Reef deposit hosts 35.0 million tonnes averaging 3.55 grams palladium, 0.97 gram platinum, 0.15 gram gold, 0.12% copper and 0.10% nickel.
• The total combined resource weighs in at 218.6 million tonnes averaging 1.54 grams palladium, 0.38 gram platinum, 0.13 gram gold, 0.18% copper and 0.08% nickel.

PGE mineralization is reported to occur near the base of the late Archean to early Proterozoic-aged layered mafic intrusions dubbed Suhanko, Narkaus and Penikat. Strike lengths of over 2 km and thicknesses of up to 60 metres have been defined in the various deposits within these intrusions. Mineralization is reported to be highly variable an includes disseminated PGE-bearing copper nickel sulphides, massive sulphide lenses near the basal contact at the Suhanko intrusion, PGE reef style mineralization and Offset style copper PGE mineralization in basement gneisses and granites.

South Atlantic reports that it has engaged Watts, Griffis and McOuat to prepare a technical report on the Arctic Platinum Partnership in accordance with National Instrument 43-101