AngloPlats continues commitment at Pacific North West’s River Valley

Vancouver — With the platinum price hitting new record highs and palladium rallying to a more than 5-year high, Pacific North West Capital (PFN-T, PAWEF-O) has received notice from joint-venture partner Anglo American Platinum (AAUK-Q) it is committing $1.1 million to this season’s exploration program at the River Valley PGM project located 65 km northeast of Sudbury, Ont.

Dubbed Phase 9A, it marks the eighth year of AngloPlats’ involvement in the project and its funding of work programs. The 50/50 joint venture is managed and operated by Pacific North West and has seen the major commit in excess of $19 million. AngloPlat can boost its interest to 60% by completing a feasibility study at River Valley and can take it up to 65% by arranging all production financing.

Exploration will focus on new PGM mineralized zones identified last season. The zones are within the River Valley intrusive, southwest of the Varley, Lismer and Dana zones where an upgraded measured and indicated resource of 30.5 million tonnes grading 1 gram palladium per tonne, 0.34 gram platinum per tonne and 0.06 gram gold per tonne was recently tabled. A further inferred resource of 2.3 million tonnes at 0.9 gram palladium, 0.3 gram platinum and 0.05 gram gold was also reviewed. The estimates used a 0.7 gram palladium plus platinum cutoff grade.

With the cutoff boosted to 1 gram palladium plus platinum, a higher-grade measured and indicated resource of 19.3 million tonnes at 1.2 grams palladium, 0.4 gram platinum and 0.07 gram gold was calculated.

The new zones, which trend onto unmapped portions of the property, will be hit with programs of mapping and geophysics followed by drilling. PGM mineralization in the new zones appears controlled by layering and structures (internal breccias) within the intrusive. All of the tabled resource is currently along the northern contact margin (breccia) of the River Valley mafic intrusive complex, which has been traced for over 15 km.

The joint venture has completed over 100,000 metres of drilling in more than 550 holes. A 40-tonne bulk sample was recently collected and is undergoing metallurgical testing at AngloPlats’ processing facilities in South Africa.

With 35.1 million shares outstanding, Pacific North West Capital posts a $14-million market capitalization based on its recent 40 trading level. The stock has a 52-week price range of 25-51.