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Miningmx.com news
Braemore earns into Pan Palladium project
Allan Seccombe
Posted: Fri, 14 Dec 2007
[miningmx.com] -- PAN PALLADIUM has brought Braemore Resources, which is working on platinum group metal and nickel smelting and refining technologies, on board as a joint venture partner to explore and develop one if not two of its platinum properties in South Africa.
Braemore will acquire shares and options in Pan Palladium that would, if all rights were exercised, give it a 44% stake in the company.
In addition to appointing a non-executive director to the ASX-listed company’s board, Braemore will nominate a managing director for Pan Palladium.
According to a heads of agreement, Perth-based Braemore will fund a pre-feasibility study over the next 18 months and then a definitive bankable study within 30 months at a cost of R55m or A$9.2m. Work done by Pan Palladium suggests two open cast mines that will be mined sequentially over eight years.
Braemore will earn 50% of the 75% stake Pan Palladium has in the Grass Valley prospect on the southern tip of the Northern Limb of the Bushveld Igneous Complex.
Grass Valley currently has an inferred resource of 3.4 million oz of platinum, palladium and gold, according to the Pan Palladium website. Using the same measure, there are 100,000 tonnes of nickel and 28,000 tonnes of copper.
Pan Palladium feels the involvement of Braemore and the processing technology it has under licence from South African mineral research group Mintek will enhance the value of the project.
“If successful, this joint venture may extend to Pan Palladium’s Aurora project areas further north,” the company said in a statement.
Aurora is a larger project, with 5.8 million oz of inferred platinum, palladium and gold resources, 68,000 tonnes of nickel and 111,000 tonnes of copper.
According to Pan Palladium’s website the company will earn its 75% in Grass Valley from Impala Platinum. The website points out Impala has the right of first refusal to acquire concentrate from the project.
Officials from both companies were not immediately available for comment on how the joint venture will unfold and what role Braemore will play in smelting and refining Grass Valley material.
The ConRoast technology Braemore’s subsidiary Independence Platinum has under licence from Mintek allows for the processing of concentrate with high chrome levels, something conventional smelters cannot effectively do.
Braemore has an exclusive 10-year global licence on the patented process that uses tried technologies of dead roasting at 16,000 degrees Celsius, smelting and atomisation. The technology has been successfully tested in the Mintek laboratories in Johannesburg.