Initial Rhodium Assays Show Promise At East Bull Lake
Grid Metals Corp. (TSXV:GRDM)(OTCQB:MSMGF) has unveiled favourable results of initial metallurgical testwork showing high metal recoveries on core samples from the Central Parisien Lake palladium zone at its 100% owned East Bull Lake property near Sudbury, Ontario.
The company is also pleased to report that rhodium – the most valuable of the platinum group metals, is present in sufficiently high concentrations to be considered as a potential, additional pay metal in future metallurgical and economic assessments.
Preliminary Metallurgical Testwork
Earlier this year, Grid contracted XPS Expert Process Solutions – A GLENCORE Company to complete preliminary metallurgical testwork on composite samples prepared from coarse rejects and quarter-core samples from three drill holes that intersected the Central Parisien Lake Zone.
This zone has been a focus of recent drilling and is the most advanced of several known surface trends of palladium mineralization on Grid’s >20 km long East Bull Lake palladium property.
The final report from the new metallurgical study has now been received and includes the following highlights obtained from an initial locked cycle test:
- Excellent modelled concentrate grade of 102.5 g/t palladium (Pd)
- Favourable palladium and copper recoveries of 77.3% and 88.9%, respectively
Vice President of Exploration and Business Development, Dr Dave Peck, said the XPS study was designed to investigate the potential to produce a palladium-rich sulphide concentrate from a relatively low-grade composite sample with a head grade of 1.21 g/t Pd. This palladium grade is considered to be representative of the recent drill intersections of near surface mineralization in the Central Parisien Lake Zone and is also believed to match the representative palladium grade that would be required to support a future open pit mining operation
“We are very encouraged by the initial metallurgical test results. We had hoped to see a ~100 g/t palladium concentrate grade from this initial testwork and we achieved that,” Dr Peck said.
“Both the palladium concentrate grade and recovery are well within the range seen at active PGM mining operations including the Lac des Iles mine and mill complex in northwestern Ontario, which produces a premium-grade, palladium-rich concentrate that is highly sought after by the world’s toll base metal + PGM smelting businesses.
“Demonstrating that we have favourable metallurgical characteristics at East Bull Lake is a significant milestone for the project.”
Rhodium Assays
The Company has received the results from 32 total PGM analyses that were performed by Actlabs (Ancaster). The samples were taken from several different drill holes completed by Grid in 2020 and 2021. Complete results are provided in the Appendix. Rhodium abundances range from 0.05 to 0.22 g/t (50 to 220
ppb). The ranges of Pd and Pt values for the same samples are 0.84 to 38.5 g/t and 0.19 to 6.49 g/t. The results indicate that rhodium may be present in economically recoverable abundances and could therefore become an important by-product metal in any future mining operations targeting the Central Parisien Lake Zone.
For reference, the Merensky Reef of the Bushveld Complex in South Africa has typical rhodium grades of 0.1 to 0.4 g/t and is an important source of the world’s current rhodium mine production.
For further information please visit: https://www.gridmetalscorp.com/
