Anooraq Sells Right to Acquire 50% Interest in its Rietfontein Farm to African Minerals.

Business Editors

VANCOUVER, B.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 10, 2001

Ronald W. Thiessen, President and CEO of Anooraq Resources Corporation (CDNX:ARQ.) is pleased to announce that Anooraq has completed a formal agreement with African Minerals Ltd., a private affiliate of Ivanhoe Capital Corporation, whereby African Minerals will have the right to earn a 50% joint venture interest in Anooraq's 2,900 hectare Rietfontein farm.

Rietfontein is located on the northern limb of the prolific Bushveld Intrusive Complex, South Africa and the farm is part of a large, 12,176 hectare land package held by Anooraq's 100% owned South African subsidiary Plateau Resources (Pty) Ltd. The Government of South Africa recently renewed Anooraq's exploration rights on its farms in the Platreef district and provided the Company the right to conduct exploration for up to 7 years on Rietfontein with the option to convert to a Mining Lease at any time during that period.

Under the terms of the Agreement, African Minerals must spend Cdn$750,000 in each of the next two years, and may do so sooner, to gain the right to form a 50:50 joint venture with Anooraq on Rietfontein. In addition, an African Minerals' affiliate participated to the extent of $520,000 in Anooraq's recent $3.2 million private placement financing. A finder's fee of up to 300,000 Anooraq shares are issuable in conjunction with this joint venture and financing.

African Minerals has multiple diamond drills operating in the immediate area on the adjoining farm to Rietfontein and now with a completed Agreement expects to commence drilling Rietfontein in the near future. Drilling is expected to target the PGM-bearing Platreef horizon on the west side of Rietfontein and two strong platinum-palladium-copper-nickel soil geochemical anomalies. These anomalies in soil are 1600 and 2000 metres long and cover the length of a pyroxenite intrusion thought to be an offshoot of the Platreef.

Anooraq's current Platreef concessions cover 14.6 kilometres of strike length along the platinum group metals (PGM) bearing Platreef horizon. The Platreef horizon is stratigraphically equivalent to the Merensky Reef located in the eastern and western limbs of the Bushveld Intrusive Complex, however, Platreef mineralization is much thicker (up to 50 metres) than the 1 to 3 metre thick Merensky reef mineralization and, therefore, is amenable to low cost, large-scale open pit mining methods. This has made the Platreef district the most attractive exploration target in the world for PGM explorers.

Anooraq's Platreef properties are located north and south of, and immediately adjacent to, a major PGM producing facility owned by Anglo Platinum. The Anglo property hosts eight PGM deposits containing nearly 50 million ounces of platinum and palladium in estimated mineral reserves and resources, including the large-scale open pit Sandsloot mine (47 million tonnes grading 4.8 g/t PGM plus Au). Rietfontein is adjacent to Anglo's southern boundary and its Tweetfontein Hill deposit, which hosts 5.0 million tonnes grading 5.0 g/t PGM plus Au, 0.54% copper and 0.65% nickel.

Exploration activity in the Platreef region has increased dramatically over the past two years. Falconbridge is exploring ground on the southeast, while African Minerals is very active to the west and south (farms Turfspruit and Macalacaskop) of Rietfontein.

For further details on Anooraq Resources Corporation and its Platreef properties please visit the Anooraq website at www.hdgold.com or contact Investor Services at [phone] or within North America at 1-800-667-2114.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

Ronald W. Thiessen, President & CEO

No regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained in this news release.