Minews Story
Jubilee Platinum is one of those companies which are difficult to pin down. Its shares have been on a run of late, but it is not clear whether this is due to reassessments of the Tjate PGM project on the eastern limb of the Bushveld, or to exploration at the Londokomanana concession in Madagascar which seems to grow larger with every hole that is drilled. In fact CEO Colin Bird, at lunch last week, suggested that it would not be long before Jubilee could claim the discovery of a whole new mining district in Madagascar.
When we wrote about the company a year ago it had just acquired a 49.9 per cent interest in New Platinum Corporation, which in turn owns 50 per cent of Tjate Platinum Corporation, for £2.495 million following a placing by Numis Securities. Tjate holds the rights to prospect for all precious and base metals on a number of farms on the eastern limb and the deal consolidated the relationship between Jubilee and New Africa Mining which is a contributor rather than a taker..
The Tjate property is immediately down dip of Anglo American’s Twickenham, mine and Implats’ Marula mine and is underlain by the Mernesky and UG2 PGM bearing reefs. Previous estimates of resources at Tjate amount to 66 million ozs of platinum group elements plus gold though this is not to JORC specifications. Nevertheless Numis Securities, broker to the company, has carried out an interesting comparison with two of its peers, Canadian listed Platinum Group Metals and Eastern Platinum, another Canadian company which recently listed silently on AIM as is the wont of brokers Canaccord.
The brokers have worked out that Eastern Platinum is valued on its current market capitalisation at around £11 per PGM oz for the attributable ounces in its 75.5 per cent owned Mareesburg property and 50 per cent interest in Spitzkop. Platinum Group Metals, using similar calculations on its inferred resource of 4.7 million ozs of PGMs is worth around £6 per PGM oz and Jubilee Platinum, which is capitalised at £34 million is valued at around £10 per PGM oz if only 20 per cent of its attributable resource is accepted.
This has to be caution taken to extremes bearing in mind that the last news from Tjate reported that step-out drilling had confirmed the presence of the Merensky and UG2 Reefs at projected horizons. The hole into the UG2 Reef included one potentially economic intersection of 9.23 g/t PGMs plus gold and showed an overall grade including two deflections of 8.01 g/t over an average 96 centimetre thickness. The other hole into the Merensky Reef intersected a width of 1.8 metres at the expected depth. Colin Bird reckons that the significant step out, combined with the mineralization down dip and along strike, have more than matched his expectations so the conclusion has to be that Tjate alone is worth the current market capitalisation of Jubilee. The pre-feasibility study will answer a number of questions that are still outstanding.
Jubilee is also looking to capitalise on the vast untapped mineral wealth of Madagascar where it is developing three potentially world-class nickel/copper/PGM assets. Having been operating in Madagascar prior to listing in 2002, Jubilee is a forerunner in a country that is proving to be of increasing interest to the majors. Last month the company announced the results of its first drillhole on the Londokomanana concession which showed a 70 metre wide intersection containing 0.23% nickel, 0.11% copper and 1.05 g/t PGMs from 38 metres including a 6.2 metre section at an average grade of 2.47g/t of combined gold, platinum and palladium. The company believes that this drilling confirms its geophysical exploration which shows some 35kms of strike length in the Londokamanana prospect and is very encouraged by the 1:1 platinum:palladium ratio.
A second drillhole, 150metres southeast of the first hole, intersected a true width of 75 metres at an average grade of 0.26% nickel, 0.14% copper and 0.66g/t of combined platinum, palladium and gold. This was very similar to the first and confirms the continuity of the geophysically anomalous zone defined by earlier exploration. There is still some way to go before Colin Bird is in a position to develop a resource amenable to large scale bulk mining, but it seems to have caught the imagination of investors to a much greater extent than Tjate. This is the conundrum of Jubilee. Is Tjate over valued and Londokamanana under-valued, or vice versa? Minews is taking no sides, but the combination for a company with a good exploration reputation and £5 million in the bank has its attractions.
Jubilee Platinum’s Projects In South Africa and Madagascar Are Running Neck and Neck.
When we wrote about the company a year ago it had just acquired a 49.9 per cent interest in New Platinum Corporation, which in turn owns 50 per cent of Tjate Platinum Corporation, for £2.495 million following a placing by Numis Securities. Tjate holds the rights to prospect for all precious and base metals on a number of farms on the eastern limb and the deal consolidated the relationship between Jubilee and New Africa Mining which is a contributor rather than a taker..
The Tjate property is immediately down dip of Anglo American’s Twickenham, mine and Implats’ Marula mine and is underlain by the Mernesky and UG2 PGM bearing reefs. Previous estimates of resources at Tjate amount to 66 million ozs of platinum group elements plus gold though this is not to JORC specifications. Nevertheless Numis Securities, broker to the company, has carried out an interesting comparison with two of its peers, Canadian listed Platinum Group Metals and Eastern Platinum, another Canadian company which recently listed silently on AIM as is the wont of brokers Canaccord.
The brokers have worked out that Eastern Platinum is valued on its current market capitalisation at around £11 per PGM oz for the attributable ounces in its 75.5 per cent owned Mareesburg property and 50 per cent interest in Spitzkop. Platinum Group Metals, using similar calculations on its inferred resource of 4.7 million ozs of PGMs is worth around £6 per PGM oz and Jubilee Platinum, which is capitalised at £34 million is valued at around £10 per PGM oz if only 20 per cent of its attributable resource is accepted.
This has to be caution taken to extremes bearing in mind that the last news from Tjate reported that step-out drilling had confirmed the presence of the Merensky and UG2 Reefs at projected horizons. The hole into the UG2 Reef included one potentially economic intersection of 9.23 g/t PGMs plus gold and showed an overall grade including two deflections of 8.01 g/t over an average 96 centimetre thickness. The other hole into the Merensky Reef intersected a width of 1.8 metres at the expected depth. Colin Bird reckons that the significant step out, combined with the mineralization down dip and along strike, have more than matched his expectations so the conclusion has to be that Tjate alone is worth the current market capitalisation of Jubilee. The pre-feasibility study will answer a number of questions that are still outstanding.
Jubilee is also looking to capitalise on the vast untapped mineral wealth of Madagascar where it is developing three potentially world-class nickel/copper/PGM assets. Having been operating in Madagascar prior to listing in 2002, Jubilee is a forerunner in a country that is proving to be of increasing interest to the majors. Last month the company announced the results of its first drillhole on the Londokomanana concession which showed a 70 metre wide intersection containing 0.23% nickel, 0.11% copper and 1.05 g/t PGMs from 38 metres including a 6.2 metre section at an average grade of 2.47g/t of combined gold, platinum and palladium. The company believes that this drilling confirms its geophysical exploration which shows some 35kms of strike length in the Londokamanana prospect and is very encouraged by the 1:1 platinum:palladium ratio.
A second drillhole, 150metres southeast of the first hole, intersected a true width of 75 metres at an average grade of 0.26% nickel, 0.14% copper and 0.66g/t of combined platinum, palladium and gold. This was very similar to the first and confirms the continuity of the geophysically anomalous zone defined by earlier exploration. There is still some way to go before Colin Bird is in a position to develop a resource amenable to large scale bulk mining, but it seems to have caught the imagination of investors to a much greater extent than Tjate. This is the conundrum of Jubilee. Is Tjate over valued and Londokamanana under-valued, or vice versa? Minews is taking no sides, but the combination for a company with a good exploration reputation and £5 million in the bank has its attractions.
Jubilee Platinum’s Projects In South Africa and Madagascar Are Running Neck and Neck.
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