A new junior explorer Podium Minerals made its way onto the ASX Wednesday with big ambitions of creating an alternative market for platinum group metals.

Platinum group metals (PGMs) include platinum, palladium, ruthenium, rhodium, osmium and iridium.

Platinum is favoured in jewellery-making because of its high resistance to tarnish and wear, while palladium is used in electronics. Ruthenium, rhodium and palladium are used to make fission products for nuclear reactors.

Podium (ASX:POD), which raised $5.5 million selling shares at 20c each, has key projects in the mid-west region of Western Australia.

Podium’s first day on the Australian bourse was a quiet one. Its share price didn’t budge from its offer price and only two trades took place.

South Africa currently accounts for 70 per cent of global platinum production. But Podium wants to help establish Australia as an alternative supplier of PGMs to the world market.

The bulk of Australia’s PGM resources are located in Western Australia and the Northern Territory, but the country is yet to be a significant producer of the precious metals.

Podium has already identified a 15km strike of near-surface PGM and gold mineralisation, as well as defined targets for nickel-copper sulphides, at the Parks Reef prospect, part of its WRC project.

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