Prophecy Platinum hits multiple "long-range" intercepts at Wellgreen, including 51.5 metres of 0.69% nickel equivalent

Prophecy Platinum Corp. (CVE:NKL)(OTCQX:PNIKF) unveiled Wednesday further drill results from its underground infill program on its Wellgreen platinum group metals-nickel-copper project in the Yukon Territory.

The miner said the five holes reported all intercepted "significant" mineralized widths, ranging from 94.2 metres and up to 284.4 metres.

Each hole reported ended in mineralization and was stopped due to difficult ground conditions.

The grades were "materially higher" than the 0.22% nickel equivalent cut off adopted in the preliminary economic assessment resource model, Prophecy said.

Highlights include hole WU12-539, which returned 18 metres of 1.75 grams per tonne (g/t)platinum+palladium+gold, 0.82% copper, and 0.48% nickel within 51.5 metres of 1.11 g/t platinum+palladium+gold, 0.50% copper, and 0.31% nickel.

This hole, and three others reported today, were drilled from Station 4 at the site, which is situated toward the centre of the east portion of the resource.

The company said the style and occurrence of mineralization reported is consistent with the company's geological model for the Wellgreen deposit.

The underground drill program started in February and has since seen 5,409 metres of diamond drilling over 28 holes at 3 stations.

The program reached target production and the underground drill has been demobilized, Prophecy said. 

So far, results of 18 holes have been reported, with assays pending for the remaining 10 holes.

A surface drill program at Wellgreen also started in June, which has now seen the completion of 13 holes, with results pending. This campaign is performing "very well", according to the company, with mineralization encountered in all holes starting from surface and extending over "significant widths".

Several holes in the surface program intercepted massive sulphides, the company added.

Last week, the company said that phase 1 metallurgy results show it is now possible to produce separate nickel-platinum group elements (PGE)-copper and copper-PGE-gold concentrates from disseminated sulphide-bearing, ultramafic mineralized rocks that comprise the bulk of Wellgreen's resource.

The company said Thursday that this may reduce downstream costs and enhance the economics of the project.
Prophecy Platinum was spun off of Prophecy Coal (TSE:PCY) in June of last year, and is focused on increasing the resource at Wellgreen, with the highly-anticipated PEA of the project released in July.
The PEA, prepared by Tetra Tech, evaluated a base case open pit mine at an 111,500 tonne per day mining rate, and an onsite concentrator at a 32,000 tonne per day milling rate.
The project is expected to produce 1.959 billion pounds of nickel in concentrate, 2.058 billion pounds of copper and 7.119 million ounces of platinum plus palladium plus gold over a 37-year mine life, with an average strip ratio of 2.57.
The study further noted that the development of the Wellgreen deposit will produce a pre-tax internal rate of return (IRR) of 38 per cent and a net present value (NPV) of $3.0 billion, based on an 8 per cent discount rate.
The July 2011 NI 43-101 technical report gave the project 289 million tonnes of inferred resource grading 0.38 per cent nickel, 0.35 per cent copper, 1.18 grams per tonne PGM plus gold, and 14 million tonnes of indicated resource at 0.69 per cent  nickel, 0.62 per cent copper, 2.25 grams per tonne PGM plus gold.
An updated resource is planned for early 2013, with a pre-feasibility study expected soon after based on the updated numbers.