APP hits 6 million oz.

Vancouver — The results from a 25,700-metre drill program has prompted South African-based Gold Fields (GOLD-Q) and Finnish-based Outokumpu to more than double the previous resource estimate at their Arctic Platinum Partnership (APP) project in northern Finland.

Targeting the Konttijarvi-Suhanko intrusion, within the Potimo mafic layered complex, the latest round of drilling has significantly increased the resources in the Ahmavaara and Konttijarvi deposits.

Based on 322 drill holes and using a cutoff grade of 0.5 gram palladium-platinum-gold, the overall resource for Konttijarvi now stands at 43.4 million tonnes grading 1.42 grams palladium, 0.39 gram platinum, 0.1 gram gold, 0.15% copper and 0.06% nickel per tonne. Of this, 11.7 million tonnes grading 1.6 grams palladium, 0.43 gram platinum, 0.1 gram gold, 0.15% copper and 0.07% nickel are slated in the measured category.

At Ahmavaara, 163 drill holes were used to calculate a combined resource of 74.1 million tonnes grading 1.05 grams palladium, 0.22 gram platinum, 0.12 gram gold, 0.21% copper and 0.09% nickel. Of this, 11.8 million tonnes grading 1.02 grams palladium, 0.19 gram platinum, 0.1 gram gold, 0.21% copper and 0.09% nickel have been defined as measured.

Combined, the two deposits host 23.5 million tonnes of measured ore grading 1.31 grams palladium, 0.31 gram platinum, 0.1 gram gold, 0.18% copper and 0.08% nickel. This is within an overall resource of 117.5 million tonnes averaging 1.19 grams palladium, 0.28 gram platinum, 0.11 gram gold, 0.19% copper and 0.08% nickel.

The mineralization is hosted in a laterally extensive stratabound zone at the base of the Konttijarvi-Suhanko Intrusion. Ranging from 30 to 60 metres in thickness, it lies below a thin layer of glacial till and has been drill-tested to 200 metres below surface. The combined resources cover a strike length of greater than 2 km.

Detailed metallurgical studies are under way and a bankable feasibility study is expected by the third quarter of 2002. Preliminary studies indicate that open-pit mining methods could extract a significant proportion of the resources at overall waste-to-ore stripping ratios hitting 3-to-1.

In March 2000, Gold Fields formed the APP with Outokumpu Oyj. It covers 390 sq. km of concessions within a 9,500-sq.-km area of interest. The major gold producer can earn a 51% interest in the project by spending US$13 million over six years.

The area of interest is a 125-km-long regional crustal contact dividing Early Proterozoic volcanic and sedimentary rocks of the Svecofennide greenstone belt from Archean rocks that include gneisses, granites and older greenstone belts. A series of layered, mafic-ultramafic intrusions are localized along this major geological feature.

The Portimo layered complex hosts fault-displaced mafic intrusive bodies.

Outokumpu originally generated four resource targets, two of which were Konttijarvi and Ahmavaara. In last year’s initial 5,000-metre drill program, the partners tabled a preliminary, 2.9-million-oz. PGM resource for the two deposits of 49.2 million tonnes grading 1.4 grams palladium, 0.34 gram platinum, 0.12 gram gold, 0.19% copper and 0.1% nickel.