Deep diamond drilling by Podium Minerals has doubled the known depth of its Parks Reef orebody to more than 500m.
According to the company, the three-hole program returned some of the highest platinum group metals, or ‘PGM’, assay grades achieved on-site, with two of the three intercept grades coming in well above the current mineral resource estimate.
Importantly, the latest results have extended the continuity of the ore body to more than 500m below the surface – more than double the depth previously drilled.
The highlight from the deep hole assays is a 1.4m hit – coming from the western hole – running a huge 11.58 g/t 5E PGM contained within a broader strike of 11.7m at 3.71 g/t 5E PGM from 666.7m downhole.
About 7km to the east another hole intercepted 5.7m at 2.14 g/t 5E PGM from 581m downhole and a further 2.4km east a hole encountered 14.3m running 1.3 g/t 5E PGM from 664.7m downhole.
The drilling campaign was co-funded the WA Government’s Exploration Incentive Scheme.
The PGM explorer is defining a 15km strike of near-surface PGM-gold-base metal mineralisation in Western Australia’s Mid West region between the mining centres of Cue and Meekatharra.
Earlier this month, Podium hailed results supporting the company’s ambition to upgrade its deposit from a three-element, or ‘3E’, to a five-element, or ‘5E’, definition.
In the PGM world, 3E refers to the three better known platinum group elements of platinum, palladium and gold, whilst 5E adds iridium and rhodium.
The company bagged a previously reported standout intercept of 1m going 5.55 grams per tonne 3E PGM, 0.2 g/t rhodium and 0.13 g/t iridium for a total of 5.88 g/t 5E PGM from a shallow 37m downhole.
The company says a second RC rig has started drilling at Parks Reef, with both rigs focused on defining an enlarged exploration target of 70 million tonnes to 75Mt at 1.2 g/t to 1.6 g/t 3E PGM for 2.7 million ounces to 3.8 million ounces of 3E PGM.
Podium aims to bolster its existing inferred resource of 2.8 million ounces 3E PGM with its current exploration target.
Podium Minerals CEO, Sam Rodda says: “Today’s announcement demonstrates the vast dimensions of this mineralised horizon with confirmed depth and high grade intercepts adding to the already defined substantial orebody length of 15km.”
Interestingly, the upgrade from a 3E to a 5E resource is no small feat. With rhodium and iridium trading around US$19,000 and US$5000 an ounce respectively, Rodda says the approximate addition to the 3E resource has the potential to add about 30 per cent in monetary value per ounce produced at Parks Reef.
With the 5E potential of its ore body now extending as far down as 500m – not to mention the high grades – interest could be mounting as to how a juiced-up resource figure would look.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Matt Birney
