JOHANNESBURG (Bloomberg) ? Aquarius Platinum Ltd. said it offered to help develop Anglo Platinum Ltd.?s Booysensdal deposit in South Africa, a project of as much as 2.5 billion rand ($369 million) delayed because of poor returns.

?There has not been an official approach, but we?ve told them that we are interested,? Gert Ackerman, managing director of Aquarius?s South African unit, said yesterday in interview at the company?s Everest South mine. ?It makes sense.?

Hamilton, Bermuda-based Aquarius will in August finish developing Everest South, the first mine on the southern portion of the country?s eastern bushveld platinum district. Anglo Platinum, the world?s No. 1 producer of the metal, has delayed developing its neighbouring Booysensdal and Der Brochen deposits because the rand?s gains have cut returns from the projects.

Hugo Holl, general manager of Everest South, said Anglo Platinum?s environmental impact assessment submitted for Booysensdal says it had budgeted 2.5 billion rand top develop the mine. Trevor Raymond, a spokesman for Anglo Platinum, declined to comment on the costs or the approach by Aquarius, when telephoned by Bloomberg.

The rand?s 77 percent gain against the dollar since the end of 2001 has slashed profits of miners, who meet most costs in rand and sell metal at dollar-denominated prices.

Johannesburg- based Anglo Platinum cut its production forecast for next year to 2.8 million ounces from the 3.5 million ounces it announced in 2000, when it planned to develop new mines in the country?s northeast and northwest.

Everest, the world?s highest platinum mine at 1,700 meters above sea-level, lies five kilometres from Booysensdal. Aquarius could access its underground ore body by extending a tunnel it?s digging at Everest, Ackerman said. Ore mined from Booysensdal could be processed by Aquarius, which could expand its plant at Everest, Ackerman said.

The cost of Aquarius developing Booysendal would be ?an order of magnitude less? than if Anglo Platinum and Mvelaphanda Resources Ltd., its owners, developed it on their own, Holl said in an interview from the mine, 300 kilometres northeast of Johannesburg.

Aquarius has not yet received a reply from Anglo Platinum, Holl said.

Pine Pienaar, Mvelaphanda?s chief executive, was not immediately available for comment when telephoned by Bloomberg.

Aquarius, South Africa?s fifth-largest platinum producer, has a similar agreement with Anglo Platinum at its Kroondal mine, northwest of Johannesburg. Anglo Platinum contributed land it was not mining to a joint venture, while Aquarius contributed its mine-shaft infrastructure and plant to process ore. The two companies split profits from the mine.

Aquarius?s shares rose as much as 1.2 percent, to 304.5 pence and traded at 301.25 pence at 12:29 p.m. in London. The shares have surged 48 percent this year, giving the company a value of 249 million pounds ($453 million). Anglo Platinum?s shares have gained 39 percent this year. It is valued at 62.5 billion rand.

A deal at Everest could see Aquarius accessing the platinum-bearing ore at Booysensdal through a five-kilometre tunnel under the Dwars River, Holl said. Smaller access shafts could also be dug on Anglo?s property, he said.

?It makes sense, because Anglo Platinum has a large, unexploited resource and Aquarius has capital infrastructure which is already under construction at Everest South,? said Emma von Klemperer, a platinum analyst at Nedcor Securities in Johannesburg.

?It will allow Anglo Platinum to expedite the cashflows available from Booysensdal.?

Aquarius, which counts Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. as its largest shareholder, will spend about 819 million rand developing Everest, Ackerman said.

Last year it sold 29.5 percent of its shares to Savannah Resources Ltd., a black-owned company, for 860 million rand. The sale funded the project and allowed Aquarius to comply with South African laws forcing the sale of assets to black investors as redress for discrimination under apartheid.

Everest will start producing metal by December 2005, with a target of about 225,000 ounces of platinum group metals a year.

Platinum will make up as much as 60 percent of output and palladium 30 percent. The company expects to boost total production to 600,000 ounces in 2007 from 350,000 this fiscal year.