Sylvania Platinum (SLP.L) has released an updated resource estimate for its Volspruit project in South Africa, which is located on the northern limb of the Bushveld complex. This updated resource contains a 10% larger resource compared to the 2022 update, while the average grade is higher as well. That being said, there now no longer is a measured resource category as Sylvania had to downgrade the 2022 measured resource to the indicated category due to short-range variability between the drill holes.
Volspruit North now contains a total of 17.6 million tonnes (with 90% of the tonnage in the indicated resource category) at an average grade of 2.52 g/t 4E while there also is some copper (0.07%) an nickel (0.18%). This means there are approximately 618,000 ounces of platinum, just under 700,000 ounces of palladium, 90,000 ounces of rhodium and about 30,000 ounces of both rhutenium and gold each. The 24 million pounds of copper won’t make a noticeable difference but the 66 million ponds of nickel are interesting.
The company also released an inferred resource estimate on Volspruit South (more drilling will be required to increase the confidence level in that resource) and as you can see in the image earlier in this blog post, the South zone contains just over 10.5 million tonnes at an average grade of 2.11 g/t 4E and similar copper and nickel grades.
This means that on a combined basis, Volspruit North & South currently contain 1 million ounces of platinum and palladium as well as 125,000 ounces of rhodium and in excess of 110 million pounds of nickel.
The company will now work towards completing a Prelimary Economic Assessment which should be completed by the end of this year.
Disclosure: The author has no position in Sylvania Platinum. Please read the disclaimer.
