Podium Minerals (ASX:POD) reports new intercepts for 17 holes returned from stage 10 drilling confirm the continuity of the Parks Reef mineralisation along the full 15km of the orebody’s strike length.
The company, which is planning to become Australia’s first platinum group metals (PGM) producer, notes that this supports the delivery of the Parks Reef Exploration Target (70 to 75Mt at grade of 1.2 to 1.6g/t 3E PGM for 2.7Moz to 3.8Moz 3E PGM) in addition to the existing resource.
Stage 10 drilling (targeting 51 new holes and extensions to 2 previously drilled holes – 53 holes in total) was completed on 8 July 2022. In total 34 holes have now had full assay results returned and an additional 7 holes have partial assays returned.
All 3E PGM results from Stage 10 are expected by early September 2022.
All drillholes achieved intersections of the reef, underscoring the reef’s significant continuity and consistency over its full 15km strike length.
“The results from stage 10 drilling continue to demonstrate the consistent nature of the Parks Reef deposit”
Addressing the results, Managing Director and CEO Sam Rodda commented: “The results from stage 10 drilling continue to demonstrate the consistent nature of the Parks Reef deposit in both grade and orebody width at depth.
This consistency allows greater confidence in the geological modelling and study scenarios considered by Podium.
An exciting highlight of these results is the identification of higher-grade intersections, which will inform selection of infill drilling areas for a proposed starter mine. Seeing regular assay results above 1.2 g/t 3E PGM is a positive step for the delivery of Podium’s Exploration Target, whilst the intersections showing grades over 6 g/t 3E PGM are highly encouraging for our early-stage mine planning.
These results will be incorporated into the next Parks Reef resource model to illustrate the size potential of the Parks Reef project, along with the recently released rhodium and iridium results that allowed the upgrade from a 3E PGM resource to Australia’s first 5E PGM4 resource.
These areas of focus have the potential to be key value drivers within the upcoming studies.”
Podium reports that the significant scale and grade of the Parks Reef Resource provides Podium the opportunity to support an emerging and responsible Australian critical metals mining industry.
The Parks Reef 5E PGM Project in Western Australia’s Mid West region is a 15km long platinum group metal deposit which also contains gold and base metal (Cu + Ni) mineralisation.
The orebody commences near surface and to date has been proven to continue to about 500m vertical depth, which remains open and shows consistency with near surface geology.
The location of Parks Reef in a mining friendly jurisdiction in Western Australia provides a unique opportunity secure an alternative and reliable platinum group metals supply to meet increasing global demand for decarbonised technologies that require PGMs (autocatalysts and hydrogen energy/fuel cell catalysts).
Images: Podium Minerals Limited
