Anooraq Resources Corporation has announced a positive outcome from its recent preliminary assessment of capital and operating costs at the Drenthe pgm deposit 250km north of Johannesburg.

Ronald Thiessen, president and CEO of Anooraq, said results suggested that Drenthe could become an economically robust open pit mine.

'Results from the preliminary assessment are very encouraging and indicate real value in the Drenthe deposit,' Mr Thiessen said.

'The combination of this mineral asset with the solid operating experience and local infrastructure accessed through our recent agreement with Anglo Platinum provides tremendous potential for the development of a high quality, long life, pgm operation.'

Preliminary assessments carried out by RSG Global estimated that the inferred resource for Drenthe is 99.4 million tonnes grading 0.60 g/t Pt, 0.63 g/t Pd, 0.01 g/t Rh, 0.06 g/t Au, 0.16 per cent Ni and 0.10 per cent Cu, containing four million ounces of combined pgm and gold within a 0.5 g/t 3PGM+Au threshold.

Drenthe is located on the Northern Limb of the Bushveld Complex approximately 13km north of Anglo American Platinum's Sandsloot open pit mine, which produces over 350,000 ounces of pgm and gold annually.