Podium Minerals Limited (ASX: POD) believes Visual analysis of two new holes at its 100% owned Park Reef PGM project in Western Australia suggests the geology of the interpreted reef zone is consistent with Parks Reef near surface geology, providing further confidence of mineralisation continuing to significant depth.
The company completed two of three deep diamond drill holes proposed to test Parks Reef approximately 500m below surface were completed prior to Christmas. The core has now arrived in Perth with preliminary lithological logging completed.
“This is a very exciting outcome for Podium, with the Stage 8 drilling so far confirming continuity of Parks Reef at depth and that it remains steeply dipping,” CEO, Sam Rodda, said.
“This drill programmeme has provided further confidence that we have yet to find the limits of the orebody at depth. We intend to pursue an aggressive exploration strategy aimed at growing our resource base and also testing our orebody for rhodium and iridium to include the full 5E PGM2 suite of minerals in future resource estimate updates.”
Holes PRDD003 and PRDD004, were drilled approximately 10km apart. Both holes intersected a thick hanging-wall mafic sequence of gabbro to gabbronorite cut by occasional thin dolerite and anorthosite dykes, and aplite and dacite porphyry intervals. This hanging-wall lithology sequence is consistent with previous chip logging in the RC programs.
Parks Reef is interpreted to have been intersected in both drill holes approximately 500m below the surface, at or immediately below the contact between the hangingwall mafic sequence and the footwall ultramafic lithologies, as has been observed in the Company’s shallow RC drilling to date. The holes will be sampled and dispatched to the laboratory for 5E PGM and base metal analysis to confirm the thickness and grade of the PGM mineralisation .
The two holes provide Podium with valuable information on the geometry of Parks Reef, with drill hole PRDD003 indicating subvertical dip on the west side of the intrusion and PRDD004 indicating a dip of approximately 70 degrees to the south in the east side, demonstrating a 20 degree flexure in the magmatic stratigraphy between the holes. The continuity of the steeply dipping orebody will enable higher confidence in future drill and mining plans at depth.
The PGM mineralisation is not visible in hand specimen, however the presence of 1-5% disseminated chalcopyrite with trace pyrrhotite is typical of the base metal – gold horizon, which forms the upper horizon of Parks Reef, thus providing further evidence to confirm the location of Parks Reef.
Podium is planning a significant increase in exploration activity for first half of calendar year 2022, including:
- Completion Stage 8 deep diamond drilling to resume 5 January 2022, ongoing logging and assaying of drill core.
- Re-assay of historic drill samples from mineralised intervals to include analysis for rhodium and iridium, to enable in future resource estimates to include the full suite of 5E PGM.
- Stage 9 drill programme of 2,600m of RC drilling to complete the 200m spaced drilling along the full strike of Parks Reef, to complete gaps from earlier programmes including supergene enriched zone near surface.
- Stage 10 drill programme of 9,400m RC drilling designed to test the reef on the existing 200m spaced sections, to sufficient depth to inform an inferred resource to 200m below surface.
- Mine design programme work to inform drill programs and provide project guidance on starter mine locations for both open cut and underground mining.
For further information please visit: https://podiumminerals.com/
