Pacific Northwest: the "secret" Platinum Play

Date: December 22, 2005

Pacific North West Capital Will Kick off 2006 With A New Resource Estimate At River Valley Plus Some Project Acquisitions

By Our Canadian Correspondent

Despite the fact that palladium prices have moved above the US$250/ounce and platinum sits at a robust US$966 / ounce, 2005 saw Canadian investors ignoring Pacific North West Capital and its River Valley project in Ontario. Trading at a near 52-week low of C$0.27, shares of Pacific North West have fallen along way from the C$4 they fetched in 2000 following news of the initial palladium-platinum discovery. But with a new resource calculation expected in January 2006, the Harry Barr led junior is hoping that the downward slide, like 2005, is a thing of the past.

Over the past four years, work at River Valley has focused on locating and defining platinum group metals mineralization along the northern brecciated contact of an intrusion under a joint venture with Anglo Platinum. So far, Anglo has spent C$18 million on the project and can earn a 65 per cent interest by funding the exploration program through to production. The favourable contact zone that hosts the mineralization now extends for some 15 kilometres and as of July, 2004 the measured and indicated resource tallied 25.4 million tones grading 0.98 gram palladium, 0.34 gram platinum and 0.06 gram gold per tonne.

True the grades are a touch light but with current platinum-palladium prices, a new 3,000 metre drill program aimed at testing new targets on the property and a new resource calculation based on drill results from the 2005 drill program underway, news in 2006 could well spark activity back into the stock.

There is also a 40 tonne bulk sample collected from the Dana North and South zones, which occupy the western side of the River Valley property, sitting in South Africa for metallurgical testing at Angloˇ¦s facilities. So Anglo is obviously looking long and hard at a potential large scale, low cost operation scenario for River Valley. In this regard, the current drill program is targeting the inside of the River Valley intrusion away form the contact zone in an effort to develop more tonnage.

Pacific North West Capital also has other things on the go like three other projects in Ontario, including an option/joint venture with Falconbridge on the Timmins West nickel project where a 3,000 metre drill program has started. Sources close to the company also say that it is negotiating a number of deals which will widen its portfolio of projects into other provinces such as Quebec and base metals could become a more important target.

Yes, the year of 2005 has not been kind to shareholders but with a market capitalization of less than C$10 million and nearly C$4.5 million in working capital, I would not want to count Harry Barr or the company out in 2006. Time will tell and we will be watching.

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