Anooraq drills rev at South Block

With $728,000 in its coffers thanks to a recent private placement of 1.4 million shares at 52 apiece, Anooraq Resources (ARQ-V) is readying its drills on the South Block project on the North Limb of the fabled Bushveld igneous complex in South Africa.

Anooraq stands to earn an 80% stake in the 1,033-sq.-km South Block project from Anglo American Platinum (AAPTY-Q). Anooraq currently holds a half-interest in the five properties and can maintain this by spending $3.6 million on exploration over five years. Another 30% can be had by bringing a property to commercial production.

Plans at South Block, about 230 km north of Johannesburg, call for 15 cores holes totalling 3,500 metres to test a prominent magnetic high outlining a shallow, gently dipping pyroxenite horizon about 100 metres thick. Geochemical surveying indicates platinum group metals and base metal values correlate well with the pyroxenite. Anooraq notes that there does not appear to have been any previous drilling on the South Block.

Anooraq’s property covers a 5.4-km-long portion of the pyroxenite horizon, including the entire downdip extension.

The same horizon appears to host Australian-based Pan Palladium’s northern and southern deposits, which lie on strike immediately east on the Volspruit farm. There, a combined inferred resource totals 59.1 million tonnes grading 1.3 grams combined platinum-palladium-gold, plus 0.14% nickel and 0.04% copper.