South Africa-focused Aquarius Platinum is to expand its resource base by up to a quarter, after it announced a deal to acquire mineral rights to a property contiguous with its Everest mine.

The world's fourth-largest platinum miner has agreed to buy the rights to the southern end of the Booysendal, in the Eastern Limb of the Bushveld Complex, from Northam Platinum for 1.2 billion rand (£109 million)

Acquarius said the acquisition should extend the life of the Everest mine from eight years to over 30 years.

The area contains around 31.1 million ounces of 4E platinum group metal (pgm) resources, comprising 1.9 million ounces of measured, 7.5 million ounces of indicated and 21.7 million ounces of inferred pgm resources.

It will increase the company's current resource base by approximately 24 per cent.

"The resources contained in Booysendal South are substantial and will add significantly to Aquarius's existing resource base, in keeping with the company's strategy of resource expansion," the miner said in a statement.

Commenting on the deal, Aquarius chief executive officer Stuart Murray said the acquisition will enable the firm to "significantly extend" the mine life and potentially expand the production of the Everest facility.

He said it was "gratifying" that the Everest mine, which was built using the proceeds of the firm's 2003 Black Economic Empowerment transaction with the Savannah Consortium, could be "transformed" by the deal.

"This acquisition enables Aquarius to exploit these pgm resources using existing infrastructure, much in the way we transformed both Kroondal and Marikana through the pool and share deals with our partners there," he added.

Mr Murray suggested that the Northam acquisition, coupled with the recent Afarak deal, could see Aquarius boost its resource base by 50 per cent.

The acquisition is subject to approval from the South African Competition Commission and the minister for mineral resources.

<b>Sources:</b>
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<a href="http://af.reuters.com/article/southAfricaNews/idAFLDE7430AS20110504?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0">UPDATE 2-Northam, Aquarius in $180 mln platinum mine deal (04/05/11)</a>
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<a href="http://www.aquariusplatinum.com/default.aspx?ContentID=212&MenuID=64">Acquisition of mineral rights adjacent to Everest Mine (04/05/11)</a>

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