GOLD AND PRECIOUS METALS — Anzex drills for platinum in New Zealand

Anzex Resources (AZX-V) has initiated a drill program at its wholly owned Longwood project on New Zealand’s South Island.

Anzex’s exploration licence covers the entire Longwood igneous complex, which the company touts as one of few platinum group metal (PGM) targets of its kind never to have been drilled.

Longwood is a layered mafic intrusive complex covering some 467 sq. km.

Exploration for base metals and platinum commenced in the late 1960s and, by the 1980s, several companies had begun to focus on the property’s potential for hosting significant platinum mineralization. The last major exploration program over the Longwood complex was conducted by Sigma Resources from 1986 to 1988. Sigma terminated its interest because the government of the day would not issue drill permits.

In recent years, the proclamation of the Crown Minerals Act and the Resource Management Act has provided for a more flexible approach to exploration and mining. Anzex applied for licence areas in 1994 and has subsequently acquired all the necessary approvals for exploration, including diamond drilling.

The Longwood igneous complex consists of three principal units: the Pahia layered series, the western diorites, and the Pourakino trodhjemite. The Pahia layered series, which consists mostly of peridotites, wehrlites, troctolites and olivine gabbros, has attracted the most interest. Extensive outcrop is sparse, and continuous layering can be observed only in hand samples and isolated outcrops. Layering can also be identified on a regional scale from airborne magnetic data.

The rock types of the Pahia series are similar to those associated with the Merensky and J-M Reefs of the Bushveld and Stillwater complexes, both of which host economic concentrations of PGMs.

Three factors suggest that platinum-enriched layers occur within the Pahia layered series: the occurrence of PGMs in placer deposits down-slope from the Pahia layered series; the distribution of anomalous stream sediment analyses; and the discovery of PGM concentrations in surface rocks of up to 3 grams platinum and 3.3 grams palladium per tonne. Moreover, there is potential for such layers to be 12 km along strike and 2 km downdip.

Initially, Anzex plans to drill three holes down to 1,000 metres to investigate the stratigraphy and test the platinum potential of the Pahia layered series.