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» Disbelief at Zim platinum blunder

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Implats looks beyond southern Africa
Allan Seccombe
Posted: Thu, 06 Apr 2006

[miningmx.com] -- IMPALA Platinum is taking another run at Madagascar where it has an agreement with Jubilee Platinum to 51% of the Ambodilafa project as it looks for other sources of metal outside southern Africa where a chunk of its resources appear to be in limbo.

Impala pulled out of another Madagascan venture last year, the $2.25bn Ambatovy nickel project in which it had a 37.5% stake because of capital escalation. It had spent $20m assessing the feasibility of the Ambatovy project.

This time round it will earn its 51% buy in by paying $5m towards exploration over four phases at Ambodilafa, a potential nickel and copper deposit that might have platinum group metals.

“I think $5m is a fair amount to pay considering the potential. They need growth and with Zimbabwe still in limbo, it’s a wise bet to take,” said a platinum analyst.

Impala has 141 million resource ounces platinum in Zimbabwe, where the mines minister Amos Midzi proposed that projects and operating mines be 25% controlled by the government and 26% by empowerment companies.

Impala has held talks with the government, but remains tightlipped about the outcome.
It’s a smart move to diversify geographically like this
Zimbabwe represents about 10% of Impala’s share price, according to some calculations.

“It’s a smart move to diversify geographically like this. Many of the others are doing it too,” the analyst said.

Anglo Platinum has exploration projects in Brazil, Russia and Canada. Lonmin has projects in Tanzania and Canada. Madagascar is seen as relatively unexplored.

Ambatovy is a laterite deposit whereas Ambodilafa would be hard rock mining, which means while the mining methods will be more expensive the grades should be higher.
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Ambodilafa was drilled in 1969. There was a 93-metre intersection containing nickel and copper ore minerals.

“The drill cores were not analysed for their PGE (platinum group elements) content, but later stream sediment sampling in 1990 defined several drainage catchments in the vicinity of the area drilled, which showed anomalous platinum and palladium values,” the companies said.