Pacific NW Capital drills PGMs at River Valley

Harry Barr grew up on a family farm in Ontario’s Ottawa Valley and studied agribusiness at Guelph University, but when his uncle Mel asked him to help run a placer gold mine in the jungles of Colombia, a future career in mining became set in stone. Barr spent three years at the mine as managing director.

“I got sucked into the gold business at twenty-three and I loved it from the get-go,” he says.

Barr returned to Canada in 1981 and it wasn’t long before he started finding projects and launching companies of his own, including what became Freegold Ventures (ITF-T, FGOVF-O), CanAlaska Uranium (CVV-V, CVVLF-O), Pacific North West Capital (PFN-T), Fire River Gold (FAU-V, FVGCF-O), Next Gen Metals (N-V), and El Nino Ventures (ELN-V).

“I’m an explorer, deal-maker, financier and promoter,” Barr says. “I don’t have fifty-two personalities but I sometimes feel like I do.”

Barr is passionate about all the companies he has created, but what dominates the discussion in an interview during his recent swing through Toronto is Pacific North West Capital’s River Valley platinum group metals project, one of North America’s largest stand-alone PGM projects, about 60 km east of Sudbury, Ont.

“The project has extensive exploration upside with over a nine-km prospective horizon,” Barr says, “and it’s located in one of the best mining districts in the world.”

In March, the company completed 60 km of line cutting and 20 line kilometres of 3D induced polarization surveying. An additional 40 line kilometres is underway.

The first phase of drilling kicked off in early April – a 3,500-metre, 20-hole drill program. The next phase is expected to begin in the fall or winter of this year and will involve about 12,000 metres of drilling, along with airborne geophysical surveys and a preliminary economic study.

A resource estimate was published in 2006. At a 1 gram platinum/palladium per tonne cut-off grade, measured and indicated resources stand at 19.3 million tonnes grading 1.18 grams palladium per tonne (733,000 oz. contained palladium), 0.39 gram platinum per tonne (245,100 oz. contained platinum), and 0.07 gram gold per tonne (43,600 oz. contained gold).

Inferred resources add 881,000 tonnes of 1.36 grams palladium (38,400 oz. palladium), 0.46 gram platinum (13,100 oz. platinum), and 0.07 gram gold (2,100 oz. gold).

Pacific North West optioned the mineral claims at River Valley in 1998 after the discovery of highly anomalous PGM values in grab samples. A year later the company optioned the property to Anglo Platinum (AGPPY-O), the world’s largest primary producer of PGMs.

Anglo Platinum went on to
invest more than $22 million on exploration for a 50% stake in the joint venture. But the financial crisis hit Anglo Platinum hard, and it no longer wanted to spend any money on the project.

“Nobody cared much about PGMs in 2009,” Barr says. “It’s such a small industry in North America, it’s stupid.”

Eventually Pacific North West negotiated to acquire Anglo
Platinum’s 50% stake in the project in exchange for 12% of its outstanding shares and Barr says the company is prepared to fund the project through to feasibility and up to production.

As of April 20, the company reported $8.4 million in working capital and securities.

At presstime Pacific North West Capital was trading at 36¢ per share and over the last year has traded between 8¢ (August 2010) and 40¢ (April 2011).

The Vancouver-based junior has 85.7 million shares outstanding.