Building on exciting breakthroughs, Podium Minerals plans to tick off critical project milestones in 2023 with funds raised through the SPP.

After doubling its resource to 6Moz of 5E PGM at the Parks Reef Platinum Group Metals (PGM) Project last year and unlocking a mineral processing pathway based on atmospheric leach, Podium (ASX:POD) says there is much left to be seen at the WA-based project.

Around 93% of all drilling conducted at the project has intersected the PGM reef with the resource modelled to only 250m below surface and remaining open at depth.

Recoveries of greater than 90% have recently been achieved for both oxide and sulphides ores under certain testing at Parks Reef, representing a 30% increase on previous oxide recoveries and a massive 50% gain on previous reported platinum recoveries.

To unlock further growth potential and drive activities that will focus on optimising project economics as a priority, POD has launched a $3m share purchase plan through the participation of existing shareholders.

 

Bullish on long-term future of PGM industry

“We are bullish about the long-term future of the PGM industry and our project – the industry is projecting demand growth into the next decade, with growing market deficits on the back of supply constraints from South Africa and Russia,” POD CEO and MD Sam Rodda says.

“PGMs are critical in decarbonising and removing toxic gases from the exhaust emissions of internal combustion engine vehicles.

“Even more exciting is the outlook for Green Hydrogen, with PGMs critical to the production of hydrogen, as well as in the generation of power from hydrogen in the Fuel Cell.”

 

Unique opportunity at Parks Reef

These, and other learnings from the company’s recent visit to South Africa have guided POD in the development of targeted work programs that will accelerate the development of its metallurgical process, refine the resource at Parks Reef, and feed into its project feasibility study.

“We have a unique opportunity to build on the world class metallurgical results achieved to date from our atmospheric leach process and focus on developing a smelter-less process in Western Australia,” Rodda explains.

“The SPP funding will allow us to sharpen our focus on critical project milestones and inform our feasibility studies.”

 

What will the SPP funds focus on?

The company believes that at this next stage in the project life cycle, geophysical methods provide a realistic, cost-effective alternative to deep drilling methods to learn more about the ore resource.

Podium will explore geophysical methods to identify the extent of the Parks Reef endowment including geological modelling, geophysical surveys which are relatively cost effective, ensuring that the major share of funds raised is available to progress the development of metallurgical processing pathways to inform project feasibility.

Podium will use the funds to:

  • Conduct geological modelling using XRF data from existing drill samples to provide confidence in resource boundaries.
  • Process historic aeromagnetic data with new and innovative techniques to inform the potential size and endowment of Parks Reef deposit.
  • Continue with flotation optimisation aimed at reducing waste from the product stream and maintain strong recovery and grade performance.
  • Build on the world-class leach recoveries to date with a focus on reducing operating and capital parameters such as reagent and energy use while informing future work direction
  • Extraction of a small sample of final product from the leach process that will inform indicative metal grade and product specifications.

Should excess funds be received, Podium will use this to further develop and de-risk its innovative metal leach process, conducting tests at increased sample sizes and scale, and including variability testing from the likely starter mine location.

Pending funding availability, this could include bulk sample preparation for pilot plant testing.

 

 

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.

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