Podium Minerals has upgraded its mineral resource estimate at the company’s 100 per cent owned Parks Reef platinum group metals project near Meekatharra in WA boosting its previous PGM estimates by 28 per cent to 2.8 million ounces grading 1.56 grams per tonne PGM. The copper estimates also experienced a healthy boost rising by 31 per cent to 27.8m tonnes at 0.24 per cent copper for 104,000 tonnes of contained copper.
The mineral resource upgrades also include a 34 per cent increase in the high value ‘upper PGM horizon’ containing 12.3 million tonnes grading 2g/t PGM.
The Parks Reef resource contains a 15-kilometre-long mineralised reef prospective for PGM, gold and base metal mineralisation and has been defined to a depth of 100m. The reef presents near surface with an average true width of approximately 15m and dips steeply in such a way that it lies near vertical. The deepest drilling to date has intersected the reef at approximately 250m vertical depth with the mineralisation remaining open.
Drill pad clearance has commenced for further RC drilling with an additional aircore drill rig arriving on site at the beginning of next week.
The next program is designed to complete the drill data set in the existing inferred resource to 100m depth including the near surface supergene enriched mineralisation that has not previously been tested.
The following stage of the campaign is focussed on growth. 10,000m of RC drilling to depths of 200m will be aimed along the remaining 12km of strike that has only experienced shallow drilling to date. The work is also designed to continue to inform the extent and confidence of the resource in addition to guiding ongoing drill targeting and assisting with mine studies.
Both phases of work are being overseen by a new head of geology at Podium, Mark Fleming, who expects both drill programs to be completed by mid-2022.
Podium is targeting both high grade and bulk tonnage PGM-gold-base metals in order to develop a low-cost open pit mining operation, with future access to high grade zones of PGM mineralisation at deeper levels by development of underground mining operations from the base of the open pit. The near vertical orientation of the reef provides favourable geometry for both open pit and underground mining.
Podium Minerals’ Chief Executive Officer, Sam Rodda said:
“This is an exciting result for Podium and our Parks Reef Project, reinforcing the strengths of our new management team who have performed well together with contract partners to deliver a 28% increase in 3E PGM ounces as Podium looks to significantly grow our resource at depth and along strike.”
“As we continue to understand and grow our geological knowledge of the orebody, activities will be focused on increasing resources, infill drilling and study work, with further metallurgical testing to inform a scoping study. These actions underpin and are key to accelerating our strategy to prove and develop a high-value, long-life Australian PGM asset.”
Global supplies of PGM are currently dominated by South Africa, Russia and Zimbabwe who cumulatively contribute over 90 per cent of platinum and 80 per cent of palladium to the world. The Parks Reef PGM Project is strategically located in an established mining precinct between Cue and Meekatharra with great infrastructure and provides a valuable opportunity for the development of an alternative Australian supply of PGMs in the increasingly unstable realm of world politics. The pieces of the puzzle may just be coming together.
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