Impala Platinum has announced a major new deal that will see the company develop its Highbank Lake platinum-palladium property.

The $5 million venture with Ottawa's Northern Shields Resources will enable Impala to earn a 60 per cent interest in the property's platinum group metals, following a £100,000 payment to Northern Shields.

Exploration will take place over the next five years, and could see a joint venture between the two companies at the end of that period.

Northern Shield CEO Ian Bliss commented: "We are very pleased to be working with one of the world's foremost platinum producers to explore our Highbank Lake platinum-palladium property."

Impala, the world's second largest platinum producer, will develop the property, where a previously unknown layered intrusion was discovered by Northern Shields in early 2004.

The deal between the two companies is set to boost the production of platinum, once the results of the five-year exploration are known.