Query Longreach, Placer combine on platinum bet

I sent a $25 money order with my last letter asking for or hoping for some facts or truth about Longreach Resources. I haven’t heard or seen any story in The Miner about it. The story has to be soon. A.V., Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.

Our apologies for any tardiness on our behalf. We respond to all queries as promptly as we can, but unfortunately we do not have space to run as many as we would like each week.

As for the “truth,” we hope you appreciate that can be a very rare commodity. In regard to Longreach Resources, we can only fill you in on certain work the company has been doing on its Platinum Blonde project in British Columbia.

Our last published report was in May to the effect that Longreach had three drills working on the Platinum Blonde project about 45 miles north of Grand Forks.

A 6-mile-long dyke or sill was the target. In the early 1900s copper ore from the zone shipped to Grand Forks for smelting had returned platinum and palladium values that, at the time, were considered of little or no value.

Longreach started working on the property in mid-1986 and Placer Development joined the project as a joint venture partner and operator in January of this year.

Under the terms of the agreement with Placer, Longreach is putting up the first $1 million for exploration in 1987. Placer has to put up another $1 million over the next two years plus put the property into production to earn a 70% interest.

After spending the first million, Longreach doesn’t have to put up any money until a production decision is made. In order to keep its interest, Placer has to pay $100,000 for every year after 1990 a production decision is not made.

Longreach, by itself, did 6,100 ft of drilling in 31 holes in 1986 and Placer, which now has the core, says there were anomalous platinum group metal values in all of the holes, but no specific values have been reported.

So far this year Longreach has put up about $300,000 of its $1-million commitment toward a 10,000-ft drilling program.