JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Drilling at dual-listed Platinum Group Metals’ (PTM’s) Waterberg project, in the North West, has demonstrated good continuity in the near-surface Super F zones, extending the Northern Super F zone up dip nearer to surface, the company said in an update on Friday.
Drilling results included an intercept of 3.43 g/t of platinum-group metals (PGMs) over 5.55 m at a vertical depth of 173.5 m, as well as intercepts of 90.95 m, from a depth of between 466.28 m and 557.23 m, grading 3.71 g/t of PGMs with an estimated true thickness of 71 m.
Drilling on the T-zone had also confirmed depth continuity, including an intercept of 5.84 g/t of gold over 19 m, with a 15 m true width at a depth of between 812 m and 831 m.
PTM said in a statement that the shape and orientation of Super F-zones with a thickness of 60 m or above was of “special interest” for mine planning in an ongoing prefeasibility study (PFS).
Drilling completed since the cut-off for the last resource update on July 22 included 31 783 m in 44 holes and 58 deflections.
By November 8, about 280 676 m had been drilled at the Waterberg project in 275 diamond drill boreholes with 444 deflections.
The latest drilling at Waterberg had targeted increased resources through the expansion of thicker Super-F zones, as well as the expansion of mineralised areas in the indicated category for a resource update, which was now in progress.
“The deposit had been intersected with excellent continuity and a new area of Super-F had been identified with multiple intercepts,” said PTM.
The T-zone, Central Super-F and Northern Super-F zone – which PTM considered the three highest-valued zones – would be targeted for inclusion in the mine design work.
The company added that prefeasibility work, including design and preparation for power and water supplies, continued throughout the year using a group of independent specialists.
“Metallurgical work to study deposit variability and optimise the potential flow sheet and concentrate recoveries is ongoing. This work has been encouraging,” said PTM.
A resource update, including recent drilling, was scheduled for completion in early 2016 and would be used for the prefeasibility mine plan.
Meanwhile, the consolidation of the project area in a recent agreement with the Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (Jogmec) had allowed the full deposit strike length of 13 km, including shallow Super-F zones, to be considered and optimised in the PFS.
All of the current project work continued to be funded by a commitment from Jogmec.