International Platinum seeks $5 million to fund exploration

When International Platinum (TSE) President John Hansuld goes to the risk capital markets in New York and London this year, he hopes to come away with more than $5 million. “Our priority is to maintain the level of expenditures of $2-2.5 million this company has achieved over the past 3-4 years,” Hansuld told shareholders at a recent annual meeting in Toronto.

The company’s present cash position is about $750,000.

“Competition for risk capital is fierce among junior mining companies today, so the name of the game is going to be uniqueness,” the new president said.

Hansuld, who has brought a series of properties into production, was named 1988 Mining Man of the Year by The Northern Miner.

“The company’s main thrust is to find a platinum mine in North America,” said Hansuld. “It has several properties, not just one. It has screened more than 45 properties so far. It is listed both on the TSE and NASDAQ and has over 6,000 shareholders, most of them U.S. citizens.”

“I approached this job with great trepidation,” he added. “At first I was critical of what they had done and thought they had been overly technical in their approach. But as I listened to the property presentations, I began to realize this company has a good portfolio of properties and they’ve approached the challenge of exploring for platinum in a very professional manner. I believe these guys have taken on a job that I would have thought only a major or the government could do.”

After spending $11 million over five years, the company does not have a platinum ore reserve even in the possible category. But concentrations of platinum have been located within stratigraphic units on three properties — Birch Lake in the Duluth Complex in Minnesota, the Big Trout Lake Intrusion in northwestern Ontario and the Picket Pin property in the Stillwater Complex in Montana.

These properties are at the crucial stage where further drilling will determine whether they are potentially viable.

“Now we need the finances to finish the job,” Hansuld says.