Drilling proves that Peako is on the money about the PGE potential at Eastman

Drilling has backed up Peako’s belief that higher-grade platinum group element zones are present within the intrusion complex at its Eastman PGE project in WA’s Kimberley region.

Notable results from the Phase 2 program are 30m grading 1.45 grams per tonne (g/t) palladium equivalent (PdEq) from a down-hole depth of 38m including 6m at 2.93g/t PdEq from 63m and 14m at 1.45g/t PdEq from 70m including 4m at 2.44g/t PdEq from 78m at the Brumby prospect.

Higher-grade PGE mineralisation at the Brumby prospect has now been defined over a continuous 180m strike extent in both directions with a 1.4km strike potential.

And if that was enough for Peako (ASX:PKO), drilling has also returned encouraging results such as 8m at 1.39g/t PdEq from 55m and 9m at 1.23g/t PdEq from 66m at the Louisa and The Gap prospects respectively.

PGEs have an important role to play in the global energy transition with platinum and palladium used to reduce car exhaust emissions in internal combustion engines while platinum is also used in hydrogen fuel cells.

“We are very pleased that the results from this Phase 2 drill program have further supported our interpretations – and the location – of key higher-grade PGE zones within the intrusion complex,” executive director Rae Clark said.

“The intercepts at the Brumby Prospect are particularly encouraging, indicating a higher-grade ore shoot that we plan to evaluate as soon as feasible, as well as testing of other high-grade target areas across the intrusion system.

“These results provide us with a clear path forward for Peako’s exploration in 2023 and, in conjunction with the WA Government’s EIS grant for diamond drilling at Brumby, enable a clear plan for our next phase of exploration to test the extent of PGE mineralisation at Brumby and to move forward toward resource definition drilling, thereby further unlocking the potential of our Eastman Project.”

Drill results

The Phase 2 drill program consisted of 15 holes totalling 2,118m to test the continuity and identify higher-grade PGE mineralisation along strike from previous encouraging PGE intercepts at the Brumby, Louisa and The Gap prospects.

Six holes were drilled at the centrally located Brumby prospect, which successfully extended the strike of PGE mineralisation to 300m.

Brumby now has an overall strike length of at least 1.4km with two additional parallel ultramafic units to the north while high grade mineralisation is continuous over a strike length of at least 180m.

Priority follow-up and step out extension drilling at Brumby across the 1.4km strike is planned for the first part of the 2023 field season and will be undertaken in conjunction with an Exploration Incentive Scheme (EIS) co-funded diamond drill program to further assess and define the PGE mineral potential of the prospect.

The remaining nine RC holes targeted the Louisa and The Gap prospects with results indicating that they are geologically complex and require further interpretation and evaluation prior to additional drilling work programs.

This article was developed in collaboration with Peako (ASX:PKO), 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.