Zimbabwe central banker stockpiles gold to bolster ZiG currency
The ZiG - short for Zimbabwe gold — is the nation’s sixth attempt at having a functioning local currency in the last 15 years.
On Friday Vancouver-based Eastern Platinum was forced to issue a clarification over contained platinum resources at its South African PGM properties following a review by the British Columbia Securities Commission.
The company’s website information regarding its Crocodile River mine, Kennedy’s Vale, Spitzkop and Mareesburg properties have now been changed to bring it in line with NI 43-101 rules.
Eastplats – worth $213.5 million on the Toronto big board – was down 2% to $0.23 in heavy volumes on Friday, but has enjoyed a sharp run-up the past week gaining more than 30% over the last five trading sessions.
The week’s gains came despite a lack of fresh news from the company, which has seen its share price slashed 57% this year.
In June the company said it was reviewing funding of its expansion plans at its Crocodile River mine and suspending development of the Mareesburg and Kennedy’s Vale projects.
A weak outlook for the platinum sector globally and a difficult operating environment in the African nation were blamed for the decision.
South African peer Aquarius Platinum also announced in June that it will temporarily close its Marikana mine, which like the Eastplats properties are located in the Bushveld complex which holds around 80% of the world’s platinum.
Platinum and palladium futures ended down 2% at $1,449 an ounce on Friday while palladium retreated to $580 an ounce.
Press Release:
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA–(Marketwire – July 6, 2012) – Eastern Platinum Limited (TSX:ELR)(AIM:ELR)(JSE:EPS) –
As a result of a review by the British Columbia Securities Commission, we are issuing the following news release to clarify our disclosure.
Eastern Platinum Limited (“Eastplats” or the “Company”) wishes to clarify certain technical information as presented in the Corporate Overview on the Company’s website. The specific disclosure issue to be clarified is the summary presentation on the website of contained platinum group metal (“PGM”) ounces in various projects controlled by the Company both on an individual project basis, as well as a cumulative total of PGM ounces for all projects. This summary disclosure is not compliant with s.2.2(a), s.2.2(b) and s.2.2(d) of NI 43-101 in that contained ounces as summarized included those in all classifications of resources, as opposed to separating and quoting these totals by each individual resource classification. The summary disclosure of contained ounces has been removed from our website and replaced by a reference to our NI 43-101 Technical Reports filed on SEDAR that are compliant with NI 43-101 and from which the summary disclosure on the website was derived. This clarification refers to assets at the Crocodile River Mine, Kennedy’s Vale, Spitzkop and Mareesburg. All future inquiries regarding resources, reserves and/or contained PGM ounces in any or all of our projects will be referred to the NI 43-101 Technical Reports on SEDAR which are on the website and easy to access.
The Company has updated its website to include material information and recent changes to the Company’s corporate profile to ensure that it is current.
Total shares issued and outstanding: 928,187,807
No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein.
Contact Information
Investor Relations
1-(604)-685-6851
1-(604)-685-6493 (FAX)
[email protected]
www.eastplats.comNOMAD:
Rob Collins
Canaccord Genuity Limited, London
+44 (0) 207 7523 8000JSE SPONSOR:
Johan Fourie
PSG Capital (Pty) Limited
[email protected]
+27 21 887 9602 (FAX)
