Anooraq rides bulk tonnage find

Vancouver — The Bushveld igneous complex has been long known to host high-grade platinum group metal deposits but in recent years, the discovery of large, lower grade prospects has brought the bulk tonnage potential of the region into the fore front.

Leading the charge into evaluating the promise of large scale deposits amenable to low cost, open pit mining, has been privately owned African Minerals, an affiliate of Robert Friedland’s Ivanhoe Capital. For over a year, the company has had up to 12 rigs turning on its Turfspruit property on the northern limb of the complex. In October of last year, with some of the holes drilled less than 5 metres from Anooraq Resources’ (ARQ-V) Rietfontein boundary, African Minerals inked a deal with the Hunter Dickinson-led junior to earn a 50% stake in the property. Under the deal, African Minerals took a $520,000 portion of a $3.2 million private placement completed by Anooraq and agreed to spend $750,000 over 2-years.Instead of immediately drilling the obvious target near the border, African Minerals elected to drill test a 1.5-km long platinum anomaly in the northern portion of the Rietfontein property. With the results showing only anomalous PGM’s, the drill rig is now turning in the primary area of interest and so far has tested a 1.7-km long portion of the favourable Platreef horizon with 25 holes.

The results from the first six of the holes confirm the promise of a large nickel-copper-platinum-palladium find. All of the holes cut wide intervals of disseminated, net textured and massive sulphide zones within the favourable Platreef horizon. The best grades received to date came from hole 8, which tallied 90.6 metres grading 1.1 grams combined platinum-palladium-gold per tonne, plus 0.45% nickel and 0.35% copper. Included in this interval was a higher-grade portion running 1.66 combined platinum-palladium-gold, 1.38% nickel and 1.1% copper over 7 metres from 124 metres downhole.

“Hole 8 demonstrates the excellent quality of the mineral deposit that is beginning to shape up at Rietfontein-Turfspruit,” says Anooraq’s President, Ronald Thiessen. “Over 297 feet of strongly mineralized Platreef was intersected, indicating a potentially huge accumulation of nickel, copper, platinum, palladium and gold.”

The results from the other holes span an 800-metre section of the Platreef horizon. Highlights include:

• Hole 1 — 15.6 metres grading 1.56 grams combined platinum-palladium-gold per tonne, 0.3% nickel and 0.22% copper from 50.5 metres downhole,
• Hole 2 — 136.2 grading 0.64 grams combined platinum-palladium-gold, 0.19% nickel and 0.15% copper from 19.6 metres downhole,
• Hole 3 — 176.3 metres grading 0.58 gram combined platinum-palladium-gold, 0.19% nickel, and 0.18% copper from 33.9 metres downhole,
• Hole 6 — 46.2 metres grading 0.75 gram combine platinum-palladium-gold, 0.31% nickel and 0.19% copper from 30.8 metres downhole, and
• Hole 7 — 89.7 metres grading 0.74 gram platinum-palladium-gold, 0.24% nickel and 0.19% copper from 73.2 metres downhole.

So far, the platinum-palladium ratio comes in at 0.5:1 and the platinum:gold ratio tallies 2.5:1.Based on the initial results, Anooraq feels the project has good potential for a “bulk tonnage” mining operation. The company cites the Anglo American Platinum’s (AAPTY-O) Potgietersrust platinum-palladium mine just 10 km northwest of Rietfontein, which is a 12,000 tonnes per day open pit operation and North American Palladium’s (PDL-T) Lac des Iles mine in Ontario, which is currently ramping up to 15,000 tonnes per day. Mineral reserve grades at the Lac des Iles mine come in at 1.53 grams palladium, 0.17 gram platinum, 0.12 gram gold, plus 0.05% nickel and 0.06% copper.

Over the past three years, Anooraq has methodically assembled three land packages, which cover some 45-kms of the platinum-palladium bearing Platreef horizon. The Platreef appears to correlate structurally with the productive Merensky reef on the eastern and western limbs of the complex, but is a wider zone, about 50 metres at its widest.

Anooraq originally got involved in the Bushveld in late 1998 by inking a deal to earn a 70% stake in the Platreef PGM project, 275 km north of Johannesburg. The Platreef properties lie in the northern limb of the famous Bushveld complex and host a 14.6-km stretch of the favourable Platreef horizon. The former owner of Platreef’s drilled eight holes into the property returning up to 2.94 grams combined platinum-palladium-rhodium-gold per tonne over 20.9 metres.

In 2000, Anooraq punched 35 diamond drill holes over a 4.5-km strike length on the southern portion of the property. Particularly encouraging to the company is a 1.6-km strike length section that shows good mineral continuity with the potential of outlining a higher-grade portion. Using a 1 gram combined platinum-palladium-gold cut off, the weighted average intercepts from the drilling come in at 0.86 gram platinum, 1.05 gram palladium, 0.04 gram rhodium, 0.14 gram gold, plus 0.1% copper and 0.15% nickel over 13.1 metres. Individual drill intercepts ran as high as 4.61 grams combined platinum-palladium-rhodium-gold over 6 metres.

The company’s main target lies in the upper 50 metres of the favourable Platreef horizon, which dips at 40 degrees to the west. The bulk of the mineralization is hosted in a coarse grained pyroxenite and consists of two zones, dubbed A and B. Separated by a few metres of low-grade material, zone B tends to occur at the hangingwall contact of a norite unit and is generally 11-14 metres thick, while zone A is typically 6 metres thick.

Spurred on by the initial drill results, Anooraq decided to acquire a 100% interest in the project from Denver-based Pinnacle Resources (PNRR-O), which received a 30% equity interest in the junior.

Today, the junior is currently drill testing this mineralization at depth with three holes.

Earlier this year, Anooraq doubled the size of its property portfolio by inking a deal with Anglo American Platinum. Under the deal, Anooraq can earn a 50% stake in 12 properties by spending $3.6 million over 5-years. The junior can then earn an additional 30% by bringing a property into production.

The bulk of the new holdings cover the northern extension of the Platreef horizon adding another 20-km of prospective strike length to its total property package.

Moving further south, the deal also includes a block of ground near Grass Valley, where Australian-listed Pan Palladium recently completed a resource-drilling program over its Grass Valley platinum group metal project. Located 15-km south of Potgietersrus, the property hosts an inferred resource of 59.1 million tonnes grading 1.3 grams combined platinum-palladium-gold, plus 0.14% nickel and 0.04% copper. Mineralization occurs in the favourable Platreef horizon.

Anooraq has launched airborne geophysical surveys over its entire land package, as well as a soil geochemical survey over its Grass Valley block in an attempt to outline additional drill targets. Given the junior’s large land position in the region and the prospects of sharing a mineral deposit with African Minerals, Robert Dickinson, Co-Chairman of the Hunter Dickinson group of companies says;

“Friedland is the master of monitization, and whatever happens at Rietfontein, Anooraq is positioned and will benefit from that monitization.”