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Platina Resources begins resource extension drilling at Owendale

Published: 05:20 19 Apr 2013 BST

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Platina Resources (ASX: PGM) has begun a 5,000 metre reverse circulation drilling program at its Owendale Platinum and Scandium Project in central New South Wales to increase the Indicated and Inferred platinum Resource.

The project represents Australia’s newest platinum discovery and the world’s most high grade scandium deposit.

Owendale is located 12 kilometres north of the Fifield Deep Lead, Australia’s only historical platinum mine.

The drilling program will also test a number of targets outside the existing Resource, including immediate lateral extensions of the deposit where platinum has been recorded in historic drilling.

The current platinum Indicated and Inferred Resource is 12.7 million tonnes at 0.7 grams per tonne (g/t) for 287,000 ounces.

Owendale also hosts a scandium Inferred and Indicated Resource of 10.1 million tonnes at 340g/t for 3,400 tonnes, using a 200 g/t cut-off.

Mineralisation is hosted in lateritic rocks that extend from 2 metres to 55 metres beneath the surface.

The platinum and scandium are intimately associated with one another, and the majority of the scandium resource is coincident with the platinum resource.

The two main deposits are Owendale North and Cincinnati which are less than 1 kilometre apart.

The majority of these resources are in the higher confidence Indicated category and support a >40-year mine life.

Drilling, which began on 4 April, is expected to take around two months to complete, subject to weather conditions, with around 2,209 metres across 66 drill holes completed so far.

The first hole in the program was drilled to collect a sample for metallurgical testwork to assess the amenability to the treatment route.

Final results from the drilling program and metallurgical testwork are expected to be reported in the June 2013 quarter.

Platina plans to fast track the development of the Owendale platinum and scandium resources due to the project’s potential to become Australia’s sole platinum mine.

Also, advances in the processing of scandium could unlock the potential for the metal to contribute significantly toward project economics.

Platina had a cash position of around A$2.45 million at the end of January 2013. The company also recently raised a further $938,849 from a non‐renounceable entitlement offer.


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