London-listed platinum explorer African Platinum (Afplats) on Monday announced a resource update for its Imbasa and Inkosi properties in South Africa that resulted in a 73% increase in its total mineral resources, when the company’s Leeuwkop property was included, to 92-million ounces.
The mineral resources included estimated platinum, palladium and rhodium as well as gold resources.
The resources included total project resources attributable to Afplats and their black economic empowerment (BEE) partners.
“They only include the properties where prospecting permits have been granted. It excludes the Wolvekraal, Kareepoort and Imbasa North areas that are still under application,” Afplats said.
The total area under permit and application was 12 500ha, the areas where resources were yet to be defined represented 29% or 3 600ha of the total area, the company added.
“The substantial increase in resources is yet another step towards Afplats’ aspiration to define a mineral resource in excess of 100-million ounces in the greater Leeuwkop area,” Afplats chief executive officer Roy Pitchford said.
Total measured, indicated and inferred UG2 mineral resources for the Leeuwkop property were 33,3-million ounces, inferred resources for the Imbasa property were 10,1-million ounces and inferred resources for the Inkosi property was 16,8-million ounces.
Total Merensky reef indicated and inferred mineral resource for the Leeuwkop project was 19,9-million ounces, total Imbasa inferred resource was 4,7-million ounces and for the Inkosi project total inferred resource was 7,2-million ounces.
“Your directors believe this new resource statement positions Afplats in the front rank of platinum group metal (PGM) mineral resources. Using the most recent data available, the chart below shows that the company is now ranked fourth in terms of PGM mineral resources in Southern Africa,” Afplats said.
Afplats’ resource base placed the company fourth in terms of South African PGM resources behind Anglo Platinum, Impala Platinum and Lonmin, the company said.
“The key to Afplats’ underlying value is the size and quality of its resources. This increased resource base has the critical mass to allow Afplats to build an operation which, in the future, could position Afplats as a major producer,” Pitchford said.
“When compared to the other junior PGM explorers/developers, Afplats’ resource base is now significantly larger than any of its peers,” he added.
Afplats’ total mineral resources placed it ahead of Anooraq Resources, AfriOre, Ridge Mining, Jubilee Platinum and Eland Platinum among other PGM explorers or project developers, according to the company.
Both the Inkosi and Imbasa resources have new order prospecting permits following the recent conversion of Imbasa from an old order prospecting permit to a new order prospecting permit, Afplats said.
The total UG2 Mineral Resource estimated for the Imbasa-Inkosi area is 181-million tonnes at a grade of 4,6 grams per ton of platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold. – I-Net Bridge