Mustang forms JV with Impala

Mustang Minerals (MMIN-C) and South African-based Impala Platinum Holdings are continuing to explore for platinum group elements at the River Valley intrusion in northern Ontario.

The two recently signed a joint-venture agreement that will see Impala spend $6 million on exploration over the next five years to earn a 60% interest in 511 claims owned by Mustang. As part of the agreement, the major must pay $225,000 in cash in the first four years.

River Valley is a layered gabbro-anorthosite intrusion within which occur numerous showings of platinum and palladium mineralization. Most occur near or at intrusion’s contact with country rock.

Impala, currently the world’s second-largest producer of the metals, has budgeted $560,000 for a program of stripping, geophysical surveying and drilling over the next eight months. This follows preliminary work begun last August.

In related news, Pacific Northwest Capital (PFN-V) has uncovered five showings of platinum, palladium and gold mineralization on the portion of the River Valley intrusion that it owns. The showings, collectively referred to as Dana Lake, span 780 metres in a north-southerly direction and occur at, or within, 100 metres of the contact zone.

Each showing was stripped and sampled at regular intervals on a 2.5-by-2.5-metre grid, and mineralized continuity between outcrops is suggested by ground geophysical surveying. The average value for the 376 samples taken is 2.4 grams combined platinum, palladium and gold per tonne, plus 0.16% copper and 0.04% nickel. Individual samples varied from 0.25 to 16 grams of those combined precious metals, though a few samples came back empty.

Also, the Ontario Geological Survey has announced a new discovery 5 km south of Dana Lake, though still on Pacific Northwest’s ground. Grab samples in a 300-metre-long-by-50-metre-wide area characterized by sulphide-bearing rocks ran up to 3.56 grams of the combined precious metals. One sample taken by Pacific Northwest assayed 10 grams.

Pacific Northwest is preparing to follow up the showings as part of a broader assessment of its properties with Anglo American Platinum. The major, the world’s largest producer of platinum, can earn majority interests in selected properties by spending $4 million on exploration over five years; of this amount, $1.5 million must be spent in 2000. A minimum of 6,000 metres of drilling is planned, plus prospecting and ground geophysical surveys.