The Platreef is a zone of mineralisation developed at the equivalent stratigraphic level of the Critical Zone – essentially between cumulates of the Main Zone cumulates and the pre-Bushveld floor rocks.  Outcrops of Main Zone rocks, sometimes with underlying Platreef development, extend for some 35 km north of the PPL mine on Sandsloot before they are cut out along a 12 km wide zone where Upper Zone cumulates rest directly on the pre-Bushveld floor rocks. The Aurora area straddles the re-appearance of Main Zone units in the northern part of Luge. The Aurora area is generally soil covered with little surface outcrop. A detailed magnetic and radiometric survey of the area was commissioned by PPD in 2002 and these data have proved invaluable in delineating the geology and structure of the Aurora area to trace the basal Bushveld contact – the position of potential Platreef development - across the area.

The Bushveld’s northern limb is far less well explored and understood than the eastern and western limbs where exploitation of PGE, Cr and V has been actively pursued for decades. Most recent exploration activity on the northern limb has focussed in the southern sector of the limb – in the vicinity of Anglo Platinum’s Potgietersrus Platinum mine. The northern sector of the northern limb has received much less attention. Limited exploration by GENMIN (now Impala Platinum) in the late 1980’s on Nonnenwerth 421 LR defined low grade, large tonnage PGE mineralisation with significant Cu and Ni credits. 

Anglo Platinum will be granted an option to buy metal concentrates at market related terms. Detailed legal documentation are being drawn up incorporating these principles and any other necessary conditions, taking account of regulatory requirements.

OTHER RELEVANT DATA

Project Resources

PPD began exploration drilling in the southern sector of its Aurora properties in July 2003 and completed 49 new boreholes – predominantly in the southern part of Aurora – up to the end of June 2004.  In the year to 30 June 2005, PPD completed a further 64 boreholes, amounting to 16,366m of diamond core drilling. This drilling provided coverage of all the Aurora properties and traced continuous PGE and base metal mineralisation over a strike length of over 15 kilometres.

Data from PPD’s activities on Altona and La Pucella, along with the Genmin exploration data on Nonnenwerth, was utilised by RSG Global to model the data set and calculate a resource on these properties. This exercise (the results of which were released to the ASX on 18 October 2004) returned a JORC-compliant inferred resource of 118.8 million tonnes with an average grade of 1.37g/t Pt+Pd+Au, 0.05%Ni and 0.08%Cu on these three farms, a resource totalling 5.2 million ounces of Pt+Pd+Au, 56,800 tonnes of Ni and 90,800 tonnes of Cu. On conclusion of the drilling program on Kransplaats, RSG Global carried out a similar modelling exercise (reported to the ASX on 14 April 2005) that returned a JORC-compliant inferred resource of 15.4 million tonnes with an average grade of 1.16g/t Pt+Pd+Au, 0.08%Ni and 0.14%Cu – an additional 575,000 ounces of Pt+Pd+Au, 12,100 tonnes of Ni and 21,500 tonnes of Cu.

In summary, the total preliminary estimate of the resource across the original Aurora farms amounts to 5.77 million ounces of Pt+Pd+Au, 68,000 tonnes of Ni and 110,930 tonnes of Cu.

Preliminary metallurgical testwork was carried out by SGS Lakefield Research Africa on a sample prepared from composite La Pucella borehole material that contained 1.33g/t 2PGE+Au, closely comparable to the 1.34g/t average obtained for the Aurora orebody in the resource estimate.  These tests involved a simple grind and float (MF1) circuit and achieved a recovery of more than 70% of 2PGE+Au at a concentrate grade of over 85g/t 2PGE+Au. These results are comparable to, and support, the recoveries achieved by Genmin (now Impala) on material from the adjacent Nonnenwerth property.

These results are encouraging as they demonstrate that the PGE in the mineralised zone on Aurora can be recovered using conventional metallurgical techniques

Mineralization is hosted by a thick sequence of variably textured gabbronoritic to anorthositic lithologies - pyroxenitic units are poorly developed or absent. Xenoliths are sparse and generally small. PGE mineralisation is generally accompanied by base metal enrichment although zones where PGE is de-coupled from base metal sulphides are common.  Accompanying sulphides are Cu enriched relative to Ni – a feature which is consistent with the more evolved, felsic nature of the hosting cumulates.  

This mineralisation represents a distinct northern facies of the contact-style PGE-Cu-Ni mineralisation.

La Pucella and Altona

A total of 49 boreholes, amounting to 14,871m of diamond core has been completed and traced the zone of PGE-Ni-Cu mineralisation from the northern portion of Altona to the northernmost point on La Pucella. The northern portion of La Pucella was found to have higher PGE grades and drilling focussed on this area.

Where best developed, three broad zones of mineralisation are identifiable with the upper and middle zones generally carrying the best PGE grades; the lowest zone, generally developed close to the basement contact, is generally thin and of lesser grade. These zones can be confidently traced along strike and down dip. 

Nonnenwerth

Nonnenwerth was previously investigated by Genmin between 1988 and 1992. A total of 35 inclined boreholes were drilled that proved the existence of a large, low grade, PGE-Cu-Ni zone of mineralisation.  The Genmin data were modelled by RSG Global to produce the resource estimate.

PPD has drilled 34 boreholes, a total of 8,900m of diamond core, were drilled to extend the coverage across the central parts of Nonnenwerth and to confirm the nature and enrichment levels of PGE in selected areas covered by Genmin.

All of these holes intersected the mineralised zone. Highlights of this drilling include intersections of: 11m of 3.15g/t 2PGE+Au at 154m in NNW-02;  23m of 2.07g/t 2PGE+Au at 142m in NNW-03; 9m of 2.10 2PGE+Au at 109m in NNW-10.

Part of PPD's drilling program included 6 boreholes drilled to trace the mineralised zone from the eastern part of northern La Pucella northwards along the Nonnenwerth-Schaffhausen boundary guided by the trend of the aeromagnetic anomalies. These holes closed a 1100m gap in borehole coverage between the southernmost borehole drilled by Genmin in the 1980’s and the northernmost PPD La Pucella drilling. All 6 boreholes intersected mineralisation similar in nature and style to that encountered in northern La Pucella. 

Highlights of these results include intersections of: 2.15g/t 2PGE+Au, 0.27%Cu and 0.12%Ni over 10m at 97m in NNW-13; 3.02g/t 2PGE+Au over 3m at 229m in NNW-14; 2.19g/t 2PGE+Au over 7m at 144m in NNW-15.

Non Plus Ultra & Schaffhausen

Initial exploration drilling on Non Plus Ultra was focussed on testing the possibility that a structural dislocation could have caused a duplication of the mineralised zone in the area where the farms La Pucella, Non Plus Ultra, Schaffhausen and Nonnenwerth meet. Essentially this interpretation is based on two sets of aeromagnetic anomalies: one set that appears to trend due north from the zone of mineralisation proved by drilling in the western part of northern La Pucella; the other the curvilinear anomaly that links the area of mineralisation in the extreme north-eastern part of La Pucella with that in southern Nonnenwerth.

A series of six boreholes were sited across the anomalies on Non Plus Ultra – the first four of these drilled: NPU-1,2,4 and 6 intersected only hangingwall gabbronorites (as recognised from previous drilling on Nonnenwerth) to depths of 150-200m and so the remaining boreholes were abandoned. It is clear that there is no duplication of the orebody – the mineralised zone follows the eastern anomaly in La Pucella northwards across the Schaffhausen boundary into Nonnenwerth.

Subsequent drilling will focus on providing adequate up- and down-dip coverage of the mineralisation in southern Nonnenwerth to enable this extension to be properly modelled and the Aurora orebody model to be updated. Some of these new holes will be collared on both Non Plus Ultra and Schaffhausen and will contribute to the committed expenditure required under the terms of PPD’s Matlala-A-Thaba Joint Venture.

Kransplaats

Exploration on the northernmost farm in the Aurora Project, Kransplaats, began in May 2004 bringing the total metreage drilled on this farm to 9,845m. The style of the mineralisation encountered on Kransplaats differed somewhat from that previously encountered on La Pucella in the south in that the mineralised zone contains a far higher proportion of base metal sulphides in which Cu dominates over Ni. PGE grades are lower in the south of the property, increasing significantly in the northern third of the farm.

Highlights of the drilling results include intersections of: 2.06g/t 2PGE+Au, 0.14%Cu and 0.11%Ni at 187m in KPL-031; 15m of 2.05g/t 2PGE+Au, 0.26%Cu and 0.12%Ni at 208m in KPL-035; 13m of 3.66g/t 2PGE+Au, 0.09%Cu and 0.05%Ni at 187m in KPL-037.  KPL-037 returned the richest single 1m intersection yet recovered in the Aurora exploration, having 23.94g/t 2PGE+Au, 0.32%Cu and 0.11%Ni.

Summary

The preliminary phase of exploration drilling on the original Aurora properties has now been completed.  Data gathered during this program has been modelled and an estimate made of the magnitude of the resource: using the conventions of the JORC system, Aurora contains an inferred resource amounting to 5.77 million ounces of 2PGE+Au, 68,200 tonnes of Ni and 110,930 tonnes of Cu.

Additional exploratory drilling has proved the continuation of mineralisation over an additional 1100m of strike length from La Pucella into southern Nonnenwerth.

Re-modelling of the Aurora orezone has allowed a number of target areas of higher than average PGE grade to be identified. Drilling will commence shortly in respect of three of these areas to improve the density of borehole coverage over these targeted areas in order to improve the confidence of the resource estimation (and hence the resource classification) in order to embark on a pre-feasibility study as soon as possible.