- PFN acquires 100% of the
River Valley Platinum Group Metals (PGM) Project by
purchasing Anglo Platinum's 50% interest
- Anglo Platinum obtains a 12%
interest in PFN
- The River Valley Project is
one of Canada's largest primary Platinum Group Metal
deposits with significant exploration upside
- NI43-101 Compliant Resource
- Over 110,000 metres in 550
holes drilled to date
- Platinum Group Metal prices
are moving to record highs
January 31, 2011,
Vancouver, Canada -- Pacific North West Capital Corp. ("PFN"
or "the Company") TSX: PFN; OTCBB: PAWEF; Frankfurt: P7J)
is pleased to announce that an agreement to purchase the 50%
ownership in the River Valley PGM project, currently owned
and held in a joint venture with Anglo Platinum Limited.
("Anglo Platinum") has been completed. The transaction,
subject to the approval of the TSX, will provide PFN with an
undivided 100% interest in the joint venture project.
Under the terms of the agreement, Anglo Platinum will
exchange its 50% interest in the unincorporated Joint
Venture, for a 12% interest in PFN, based on the issued and
outstanding common shares of PFN as of November 30, 2010
(67,643.008). The aggregate purchase price for the 50%
interest in the River Valley PGM project is;
- 8,117,161 fully paid and
non-assessable Common Shares; and
- Three year warrants
exercisable to purchase 3,000,000 Common Shares at a
price of Cdn$0.30 per share.
PFN will issue the shares
in the Company to Kaymin Resources Ltd. ("Kaymin"), a
wholly owned subsidiary of Anglo Platinum Limited. in
exchange for Kaymin's 50% interest in the joint venture.
The all-share transaction is expected to close upon the
acceptance by the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Harry Barr, President and
CEO of PFN commented, "The shares issued to Kaymin
will make Anglo Platinum a strategic investor in PFN.
Anglo Platinum will have the opportunity to participate
in the upside of the project through the future success
of the Company and at the same time, PFN will be able
to seek new sources of funding to advance the River Valley PGM project."
The River Valley PGM project was acquired in 1998 by PFN
through a number of transactions. PFN discovered
significant PGM occurrences on the property and entered
into a joint venture agreement with Anglo Platinum in
1999. PFN remained operator of the joint venture and
defined a NI43-101 compliant reportable resource of 8.53
million tonnes containing 353,200 ounces of palladium
(1.29 g/t), 116,800 ounces of platinum (0.43 g/t) and
20,400 ounces of gold (0.07 g/t) in the "measured"
category and an additional 22.02 million tonnes
containing 600,700 ounces of palladium (0.85 g/t),
212,800 ounces of platinum (0.30g/t) and 39,000 ounces
of gold (0.06 g/t) in the "indicated" category and
"inferred" resources of 2.39 million tonnes containing
67,000 ounces of palladium (0.87g/t), 23,800 ounces of
platinum (0.31g/t) and 4,000 ounces of gold (0.05 g/t)
using a 0.7 g/t cut off (pt/pd) (PFN press release March
27, 2006).
"Stand alone PGM projects are rare in North America.
The PFN / Anglo Platinum agreement is the second major
acquisition of its kind in recent months. It was just
over 4 months ago, in October 2010, when Stillwater
Mining acquired the platinum assets of the Canadian
mining junior Marathon PGM in a cash and shares deal
that was valued at $118 million." Spiros Cacos,
Manager Investor Relations.
The Company will now focus on advancing the project
further through renewed exploration activities. Prior
work had left several target areas where mineralization
was open to depth and along the nine kilometre strike
length.
Similarly, new target areas were discovered that
returned anomalous values of PGM's but due to the
financial crisis of 2008, were not followed up. Induced
polarization (IP) surveys were instrumental in locating
and identifying mineralized zones on the property. The
Company now intends to enhance the earlier work with
more recent 3D technology whereby the mineralization can
in principle be traced to deeper depths and
contemporaneously mapped close to surface in new target
areas. The Company will provide an update of the
exploration strategy in the near future.
"The timing of this agreement could not be better. We
expect that the enthusiasm for global PGM exploration
will escalate in the coming months. The River Valley
Project has many advantages over other PGM exploration
and development projects, mainly a defined resource
located only sixty kilometres from the nickel-copper-PGM
smelting and refining activities in Sudbury, Ontario."
Anthony Kovacs, VP Exploration.
Qualified Person
Statement
This news release has been reviewed and approved for
technical content by John Londry, a qualified person
under the provisions of national instrument 43-101.
About the River Valley PGM Project
The River Valley PGM project is located in the Dana and
Pardo townships of Northern Ontario, approximately 60km
east of Sudbury, Ontario. The project is road accessible
in Canada's premier Ni-Cu-PGM mining and smelting
district which boasts perfect infrastructure and
community support for mining activities.
The River Valley project mineral claims were optioned by
PFN in 1998 following the discovery of highly anomalous
PGM values in grab samples. The property was
subsequently optioned by PFN to Anglo Platinum in 1999.
Initial exploration was guided by geochemical and
induced polarization surveys with subsequent drilling
proving up significant mineralization at Dana Lake and
Lismer's Ridge. A mineral resource estimate in
accordance with the guidelines set out by NI 43-101 was
published in 2006. Anglo Platinum continued to fund
exploration under the terms of the option and joint
venture agreement and invested over $22M in the
exploration of the property for a 50% stake in the joint
venture. In order for Anglo Platinum to retain their
interest in the Joint Venture, they were required to
fund all exploration to completion of a feasibility
study, but as a result of capital expenditure reductions
during the global financial crises, no new funds were
allocated to the project, above and beyond the minimal
holding costs.
PFN and Anglo Platinum were able to come to terms
whereby PFN could acquire Anglo Platinum's 50% stake in
the River Valley JV giving PFN 100% of the River Valley
PGM project by offering 12% of its current outstanding
shares to Anglo Platinum. This would enable PFN to seek
external funding for the project while Anglo Platinum
could benefit from any future success of the project
through its share ownership in PFN.
There are no other encumbrances on the River Valley PGM
project associated with the terms of the sale to Anglo
Platinum after an 18 month early disposition period
lapses. There are currently no back-in rights or
off-take agreements between the two parties. The
property is still subject to a 3% NSR that is payable to
the underlying vendors.
- Table 1. Measured
and Indicated Resources Using a 1.0 g/t cut off
(Pt/Pd): 19.3 million tonnes containing 733,000
ounces palladium (1.18 g/t), 245,100 ounces of
platinum (0.39 g/t) and 43,600 ounces of gold (0.07
g/t) with an additional 881,000 tonnes containing
38,400 ounces of palladium (1.36 g/t), 13,100 ounces
of platinum (0.46 g/t) and 2,100 ounces of gold
(0.07 g/t) of Inferred Resources using a 1.0 g/t cut
off (Pt/Pd).
Table 2. Measured and Indicated Resources
using a 0.7 g/t cut off (Pt/Pd) of 30.5 million tonnes containing 953,900 ounces of palladium (0.97
g/t), 329,500 ounces of platinum (0.34 g/t) and
59,500 ounces of gold (0.061g/t) with an additional
2.3 million tonnes containing 67,000 ounces of
palladium (0.87g/t), 23,800 ounces of platinum
(0.31g/t) and 4,000 ounces of gold (0.05 g/t) of
Inferred Resources using a 0.7 g/t cut off (Pt/Pd).
About Pacific North West Capital Corp:
Pacific North West Capital Corp.
(TSX: PFN; OTCQX: PAWEF; Frankfurt: P7J.F) is a mineral
exploration company focused on the exploration and
development of one of Canada's largest primary Platinum
Group Metals (PGM) deposits, the River Valley PGM Project
located in the Sudbury region of Ontario. In addition, the
Company has an active gold exploration program near Val
d'Or, Québec, one of the world's most famous gold and base
metal producing regions. The Company is also advancing a
polymetallic project in the Iskut River region of British
Columbia. Pacific North West Capital Corp. is also a
significant shareholder of
Fire River Gold Corp
(FAU:TSX.V) who is developing the
Nixon Fork Gold Mine in Alaska
Pacific North West Capital Corp. is well funded and plans to
use management's technical, financing and negotiating skills
to acquire additional platinum group metals, base metals and
precious metals projects on an international scale.
Management's corporate philosophy is to be a project
generator, explorer and project operator with the objective
of option/joint venturing projects with major and junior
mining companies through to production. Pacific North West
Capital Corp. is a member of the International Metals Group
of Companies (www.internationalmetalsgroup.com). |
