Podium beefs up WA platinum hunt
Podium Minerals has stepped up its hunt for more platinum group metals, or “PGMs”, to add to the company’s 2.2 million ounce combined platinum, palladium and gold resource at its Parks Reef project in Western Australia. More than 12,000 metres of drilling is planned for the new year as a separate three-hole campaign to test grade continuity and thickness of the mineralised reef at depth draws to a close.
An updated resource estimate for Parks Reef recently highlighted a spectacular 40.2 million tonnes grading 1.54 grams per tonne combined platinum, palladium plus gold. It even includes a potential 79,000 tonnes of contained copper metal.
The resource is hosted along 14.6 kilometres of the mineralised reef and is defined to a maximum depth of 100m.
Podium recently launched a two-hole program targeting new mineralisation at about 520m below surface. The company has been awarded $150,000 funding for the diamond drilling, representing 50 per cent of the total cost, under the West Australian Government’s ‘Exploration Incentive Scheme’.
Management says both holes have now been completed with detailed geological logging and sampling of the drill core underway.
A third deep diamond hole, wholly funded by Podium, is also planned to be sunk into Parks Reef early in the new year.
The company believes it will obtain key information to vector towards higher-grade and thicker zones of PGM mineralisation if the reef is intercepted at the targeted deeper levels.
Meanwhile, Podium’s search for more PGMs at Parks Reef is set to go into overdrive in early 2021 as a 12,600m drilling onslaught across two separate campaigns gets underway.
A 2,600m RC program will test for shallow mineralisation in areas where recent drilling intercepted the reef at deeper levels. The drilling will also target a previously untested cross section of the reef.
A separate 10,000m campaign will aim to unearth new mineralisation to 200m below surface and grow the inferred resource defined at Parks Reef.
Curiously, Podium is also looking to create further value from its resource by re-assaying its drill samples for other minerals, including rhodium and iridium.
Management says the drilling that defined its Parks Reef resource only saw select intercepts assayed for iridium and rhodium despite both minerals being intersected in the lower horizons of the reef.
The company plans to incorporate the high value elements in future resource updates for Parks Reef.
Podium appears to be building on the momentum of a solid 2021 with its latest drill campaigns. If it can intersect mineralisation at depth consistently in the new year Parks Reef may take on a new even more lucrative complexion in the new year.
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