57pc rise in Parks Reef 3E PGM resource puts the shine on Podium

Investors have reacted favourably to Podium increasing the platinum, palladium and gold (3E PGM) resource at its Parks Reef project by 57% to 2.2Moz.

The company has also increased the copper resource at the project by 47% to 79,000 tonnes, sending its shares up by 2.13% to 48c.

While this takes Podium Minerals’ (ASX:POD) market capitalisation up to about $134.6m, it is worth noting that the inground copper resource alone could be worth about US$711m ($983.4m) using an assumed copper price of US$9,000/t.

And even that may be a little conservative given that the in-demand metal currently goes for about US$9,255/t.

This is a rough back of the envelope calculation that doesn’t take into account the cost of development, but it also excludes the value of the 3E PGM resource, which speaks volumes about the project’s potential.

Adding further interest, while mineralisation remains open at depth, the newly upgraded resources have only been defined to a depth of 100m below surface based on an assumption of bulk open pit mining.

It also excludes high value platinum group elements such as rhodium and iridium that occur throughout Parks Reef as previously reported.

“We are again pleased to report a considerable upgrade in Podium’s PGM resources at Parks Reef which now stands at 2.2m ounces of 3E PGM plus 79,000t copper, which at a later stage, subject to re-assaying of drill samples, will include high value rhodium and iridium to form part of the JORC compliant resource,” executive chairman Clayton Dodd said.

“It’s a credit to our geological team over the past 12 months to complete various drill programmes along the full strike length of Parks Reef primarily targeting the top 100m, resulting in a significant new resource estimate.

“Recently we have drilled below 100m intersecting PGM mineralisation with a view of increasing the resources and shortly will commence the Parks Reef deep diamond drilling program.”

Dodd added that with the company’s greater understanding of the project’s geology, it will now fine-tune mine optimisation studies to include infill drilling along with the continuation of metallurgical test work.

This will lead in turn to a detailed scoping study.

Resource upgrade and future plans

Parks Reef now hosts an inferred resource of 40.2 million tonnes grading 1.54 grams per tonne 3E PGM for the platinum group metal horizon and an additional 21.3Mt at 0.24% copper and 0.29g/t 3E PGM for the overlying base metal and gold horizon.

This includes a high-value upper PGM horizon of 9.2Mt at 2g/t 3E PGM and 0.17% copper and is based on successful drilling undertaken during the first half of 2021.

Podium plans to carry out further reverse circulation drilling to test high-grade near-surface supergene enriched mineralisation that has not been previously tested.

This includes drilling across an 800m strike of the Central sector, where a cultural heritage site occurs.

While this zone is included in the resource model, drilling is expected to better define its full potential.

The company also intends to further assess the Western Extension of Parks Reef where drilling during 2021 intersected 20m at 1.19g/t 3E PGM with more RC drilling.

This article was developed in collaboration with Podium Minerals, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.