Podium Minerals (ASX:POD) reports it has doubled the Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) for the Parks Reef PGM Project to 6 million ounces of 5E PGM, and has also defined ‘high-grade’ zones at the project.
The company reports the updated PGM horizons contains 0.64g/t Pt, 0.52g/t Pd, 0.07g/t Au, 0.05g/t Rh and 0.02g/t Ir including 94,000t Cu, 127,000t Ni and 24,000t Co.
The revised MRE is the result of drilling the Exploration Target of 70Mt to 75Mt at 1.2g/t to 1.6g/t 3E PGM at a nominal reef vertical intercept depth of 150m to extend the inferred resource to 250m below the surface, and the company reports the orebody remains open below this depth and along the full 15km strike.
Podium Minerals Managing Director and CEO Sam Rodda says it is satisfying to see this significant upgrade to the MRE.
“The team has been working diligently for several months on this project and we are pleased with the outcome. The quantum of the upgrade should come as no surprise to shareholders who have followed our recent drilling results, and is attributable to the remarkable consistency of the Parks Reef orebody.
“The team has been working diligently for several months on this project and we are pleased with the outcome”
The most exciting part of this orebody resource program is the successful definition of the high-grade zones within the total PGM reef width. These high-grade zones have mining widths suitable for selective open-cut mining as well as underground stoping methods, these zones will allow our study team to consider options of higher grade mining and processing versus bulk methods to optimise value at Parks Reef.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank our team who have worked on the delivery of this upgrade. We are lucky to have such skilled team members applying their collective experience on a project that continues to break new ground with respect to Australian PGM projects.
The team is aligned in the effort to develop and progress Parks Reef to become Australia’s first PGM supplier and this MRE upgrade is a significant milestone on that journey.”
Podium reports the new MRE for the PGM horizon at Parks Reef has been lifted to 143Mt for 6Moz at 1.30g/t 5E PGM, and the limits of the PGM domain have been chosen as the cut-off because preliminary mining and metallurgy studies have indicated that material within this domain has a reasonable prospect for eventual economic extraction.
3D modelling of the resource conducted by the company is based on grade boundaries of 0.5g/t 5E PGM (PGM reef) and 2g/t 5E PGM (high-grade zones), and the MRE now includes a ‘high-grade’ PGM subset defined on an elevated cut-off of over 2g/t 5E PGM, and this is in addition to 2 defined ‘high-grade’ zones that sit within the boundary of the PGM reef.
Podium also reports the ‘high-grade’ zones sit close to the hanging wall of the orebody, the footwall of the orebody and along the 15km strike.
The ‘high-grade’ zones host 15.7Mt for 1,170,000oz @ 2.32g/t 5E PGM (1.27g/t pt, 0.84g/t Pd, 0.14g/t Au, 0.04g/t Rh and 0.03g/t Ir).
The company says the orebody shows some variation in widths and grades, and the definition of these ‘high-grade’ areas along with reef width will be an important step in future work including definition drilling, exploration drilling programs, optimising mining methods and refining processing pathways.
It also notes the close association between cut-off grade and the resource reported within the modelled PGM reef and ‘high-grade’ zones adds confidence to this resource model.
Podium comments the grade-tonnage is important for early stage mine planning as the studies team can evaluate the amount of ore tonnes associated with a range of cut-off grades, and the model will inform where these ore tonnes are situated along the 15km strike length of the Parks Reef orebody.
Podium Minerals is an exploration and resource development company focused on PGMs, gold and base metals, and it owns and operates the Parks Reef 5E PGM Project, located near Meekatharra in Western Australia.
The company aims to become Australia’s first PGM producer to support an emerging and responsible Australian critical metals mining industry.
Images: Podium Minerals Ltd & iStock
