Glorieux:

RN: " He stated that we had enough PGE's to generate a mine just for this. "

I mentioned this back in November last year and will do it again:

in my opinion we have a VERY, VERY high potential for a PGE mine at Double Eagle !

And a nickle mine !

And a copper mine !

After the latest news we now have confirmation that DE is carrying the WHOLE GROUP of ALL 8 precious metals with gold, silver, platinum, palladium, rhodium, ruthenium, osmium and iridium !

Keep in mind that the following results of my DD are just accounting for the normally quoted 3PGE content (meaning platinum, palladium and gold). We now have economic grades of the other precious metals as well which makes it even more interesting !

After a lot of DD I come to the following conclusion:

PGE-analysis for Noront´s Double Eagle find:


The "Big Players" in the PGE business are Anglo American Platinum, Impala Platinum (Implats), Lonmin PLC (Lonplats), Norilsk Nickel and Stillwater Mining Company (just to name the most important ones).

The Bushveld Igneous Complex (BIC) in SA is the area with the most PGE production worldwide followed by Norilsk Nickel´s Polar Division top mines (Oktyabrsky und Talnakh).
In North America it is Stillwater (Stillwater Mining), in Canada Lac des Iles (North American Palladium), Raglan (Falconbridge) and several mines in Sudbury Basin (Inco, Falconbridge).

Worldwide ranking of production of PGE is as follows:  

South Africa (59%), Russia (28%), Canada (5%) and USA (4%).

For comparison I mention the metal (head) grades of the top mines / areas in the PGE business (in g/t for 3E-PGE, meaning combination of platinum, palladium and gold):


1. Bushveld (BIC)

The top mines extract  3-6 g/t  PGE


2. Norilsk

Talnakh : around 10-11 g/t PGE
Oktyabrsky: around 13-14 g/t PGE


3. Canada

Sudbury:

Copper Cliff North: around 16 g/t PGE (but 300.000 tonnes only)
Totten: 4,8 g/t PGE
Kelly Lake: 3,6 g/t PGE


Lac des Iles: 2 g/t PGE (but huge tonnage and open-pit)


4. USA

Stillwater:

the Johns-Manville Reef is probably the highest grade PGE mine in the world: 22-24 g/t PGE

but: it is in great depth and no continuous mineralization (meaning high costs)

And now compare this to the Double Eagle figures (again in g/t for 3E-PGE):

#01: 2,9 g/t

#02: 4,3 g/t

#05: 9,6 g/t

#07: 10,6 g/t  (!!!!!)

#09: 8,0 g/t

#11: 4,5 g/t

#12: 3,4 g/t

#14: 3,9 g/t

#16: 3,7 g/t

#17: 4,0 g/t

#18: 5,3 g/t

#19: 2,6 g/t

#20: 2,2 g/t

#21: 2,7 g/t

#22: 1,6 g/t

#23: 6,9 g/t

#24: 4,5 g/t

#25: 1,9 g/t

#27: 15,1 g/t  (!!!!!)

#29: 4,2 g/t

(These are the average grades per hole, some of them with very good lenghts).

If we look at the most prominent intervalls, you have to come to the conclusion that if we get the tonnage and similar grades, DE ranks very highly in the PGE list of worldclass deposits and therefore will be interesting for the "Big Players" in this business:

NOT-07-05:

6 4 , 7 5  g/t  over 3,00 m

and

1 3 , 2 6  g/t  over  6 8 , 2 0 m (!)


NOT 07-07:

4 4 , 7 4  g/t  over 2,80 m

and 

2 2 , 3 7  g/t  over 14,30 m

and

1 1 , 7 4  g/t  over 14,30 m

Just do the comparison and some futher DD:

http://www.infomine.com/commodities/palladium.asp

http://www.infomine.com/commodities/platinum.asp

http://www.mbendi.co.za/indy/ming/plat/af/sa/p0005.htm

http://www.platinum.matthey.com/uploaded_files/Pt2004/PGM%20Mining%20Russia.pdf

http://www.platinum.matthey.com/production/production.html

http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/platinum/550398.pdf

http://www.platinum.matthey.com/production/1048863442.html

http://www.mininglife.com/commodities/Palladium.asp

http://www.mininglife.com/commodities/Platinum.asp

http://www.kitco.com/charts/livepalladium.html

http://www.kitco.com/charts/liveplatinum.html

Best Regards,

FANTOMAS