Platinum junior Nkwe Platinum has announced an 88% resource upgrade on its Tubatse Garatau project in South Africa’s Bushveld Complex.

The platinum resource increased from 20,4-million ounces to an estimated 38,4-million ounces. the company said on Tuesday.

A 24 000-m diamond drill programme, over less than one-half of the project area, confirmed a mineral resource of 18-million ounces, with an average grade of 3,62 g/t, from 155-million tons.

“We are extremely pleased with the drill results from the Garatau project, which demonstrates strong potential to be developed into a truly world-class asset. With drilling to date covering less than one-half of the Garatau project, and a number of additional high-priority drill targets, there is a good opportunity to significantly expand the existing resource base,” said Nkwe CEO Maredi Mphahlele.

The initial mineral resource was based on assays from only nine boreholes on the Merensky reef, and 10 boreholes on the UG2 reef.

With the updated resource, the company was planning an aggressive drill programme to further delineate the resource on the project, and eight drill rigs were available to meet the requirement of an additional 30 drill holes.

Nkwe recently announced its joint venture with diversified miner Xstrata to develop the Tubaste Garatau project, with Xstrata having the option to fund the development of two mines and a concentrator, with a stated goal of producing one-million ounces of platinum-group metals a year.

With an initial base of 38,4-million ounces, the project was well planned to deliver on the bankable feasibility study in 2009.

Mphahlele said that the latest agreement with Xstrata also added considerable value to the project, as the diversified miner brought with it a wealth of experience and an impressive track record in developing similar projects through to production. “These are very exciting times for Nkwe, and we look forward to updating the market on further developments.”

Nkwe is still awaiting additional assay results for both the Merensky and UG2 intersections on the project. These were, however, not expected to vary significantly from the current disclosed resource, given both the continuity of the mineralisation and the lack of significant structure found in the project area.

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