Exploration

Comprehensive Exploration Programmes Delivering Additional Opportunities and Value at Parks Reef

 

Podium Minerals is committed to unearthing the full potential of its wholly owned Parks Reef Project, located near the Weld Range of WA’s Midwest region.

 

Specifically, the Company seeks to target prospects with synergistic commodities, or adjoined/adjacent locations that leverage Podium’s collective expertise; maximising value creation, while maintaining a clear focus on meeting and exceeding robust exploration targets at Parks Reef.

 

Remaining open to value adding opportunities whilst prioritising current operations is part of Podium’s growth plan and will dually seek to propel the Company’s trajectory towards becoming Australia’s first operating PGM mine.

 

Working within a vast, resource-rich licence area, Podium continues to diligently assess emerging opportunities in alignment with existing planning, to provide the Company with a pipeline of development projects.

 

Using in-house skill sets, Podium will undertake exploration at every level to evaluate assets with potential to advance to development.

Rigorous, Staged Exploration Yielding Positive PGM Results

 

Podium Minerals is currently in advanced stages of exploration at its flagship Parks Reef PGM Project. Since commencing modern exploration in 2018, there have been 10 stages of exploration drilling completed, bringing the drill spacing down to a depth of 200m along the full 15km length of Parks Reef. A further 3 stages have currently been pre-planned and will seek to inform the Company’s subsequent strategy.

The various stages are outlined in more detail below.

Stages 1-6

Aims of Stages 1-6 Drilling: Drilled between 2018 and 2021, the initial 6 programmes were designed to progressively test 2-3km blocks of Parks Reef on 200m spaced sections with 2 RC holes per section – primarily 1 hole in the oxide zone and 1 hole in the sulphide zone – to enable resource estimation to 100m below surface.

 

Outcomes of Stages 1-6 Drilling: Stages 1-6 defined the near surface location of Parks Reef on 200m spaced drill sections and established the gross morphology and grade of the reef to inform an Inferred Mineral Resource estimate. The data generated also allowed the reporting of an Exploration Target to a depth of 200m below surface, along the full 15km strike of the reef.

Stage 7

Aims of Stage 7 Drilling: Drilled in 2021, the Stage 7 programme was designed to further fill gaps in the 200m spaced drill sections that existed at the time and more importantly, to test a 2.4km strike of Parks Reef in the Western sector to a planned depth of 150m below surface, to inform a deeper MRE in this area.

 

Outcomes of Stage 7 Drilling: Stage 7 marked the completion of drilling to ~200m spaced drilling across the entire 15km strike at Parks Reef, aside from an identified heritage site in the eastern portion, which had to be put on hold pending S18 clearance. The deeper drilling of the western sector resulted in the deepest reef intersection at 225m below surface, allowing the resultant inferred MRE to be projected to 325m in this area.

Stage 8

Aims of Stage 8 Drilling: Performed in collaboration with the West Australian Government Exploration Incentive Scheme (EIS) co-funding, Stage 8 deep diamond drilling was undertaken to assess whether the reef continued at 500m below surface and whether there was any material difference in grade and or thickness of the reef at such depth. Three 750m deep diamond drill holes (PRDD003, PRDD004 and PRDD005) were drilled to intersect the reef at a depth of approximately 500m below the surface.

 

Outcomes of Stage 8 Drilling: The three holes were completed at the end of January 2022. Subsequent core logging and processing returned some of the highest-grade individual assays intersected at Parks Reef to date, with two of the three holes delivering intersection widths with average 5E PGM grades – well above Podium’s current inferred Mineral Resource Estimate. The results indicate zones within Parks Reef that host significantly higher grades than the current MRE grade (as of June 2022).

Stage 9

Aims of Stage 9 Drilling: Comprised 2,600m of RC drilling to complete what remained of 200m spaced drilling along the full strike of Parks Reef – filling minor drill data gaps from earlier programmes – including supergene enriched zone near surface after some earlier some holes had intersected the reef too deep. The program also sought to target potential mineralisation extensions in areas of faulting or disruption (by post-mineralisation dykes).

 

Outcomes of Stage 9 Drilling: The Stage 9 RC drilling campaign was completed along the full strike of Parks Reef in March 2022. 7 of the 11 assayed holes returned intercepts greater than 1.0g/t 3E PGM, with several encountering stand out results that support the potential for higher-grade zones within the area of the defined MRE.

Stage 10

Aims of Stage 10 Drilling: 9,400m RC drilling, designed to test the reef on the existing 200m spaced sections to a sufficient depth that would comfortably inform an Inferred MRE to a depth of 200m below surface.

 

Outcomes of Stage 10 Drilling: The Stage 10 RC drill programme of 9,400m has been ongoing since late March and is working towards proving an enlarged Exploration Target of 70Mt to 75Mt at 1.2 g/t to 1.6 g/t 3E PGM for 2.7Moz to 3.8Moz 3E PGM .
This is in addition to the 2.8Moz 3E PGM Inferred MRE reported on 10 February 2022. To date, 33 holes have been drilled for 6,020m and have all been transported to the laboratory for assays.

Proposed Pending, Stage 11

Aims of Stage 11 Drilling: Using a combination of RC pre-collars with diamond drill tails where required, the Stage 11 programme is designed to test the full length of Parks Reef to 250m below surface, initially on 400m spaced sections with subsequent infill to 200m spaced sections. The objective is to inform a resource to 350m below surface.

 

Drilling is planned to commence in early June 2022.

 

Outcomes of Stage 11 Drilling: Pending

Stage 12

Aims of Stage 12 Drilling: The Stage 12 infill drilling program is aimed at upgrading 2 x 2km portions of the current Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) to Indicated Resource confidence and will consider depths down to 500m below surface. Included in the programme, are 2 small grids of 25m x 25m spaced drilling, which will provide variography data that will enable definition of the drill spacing for Indicated resource category.

 

Drilling is planned to commence following Stage 11.

 

Outcomes of Stage 12 Drilling: Pending

¹ The potential quantity and grade of the Exploration Target is conceptual in nature and therefore is an approximation. There has been insufficient exploration to estimate further Mineral Resources and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the determination of additional Mineral Resources. Refer to ASX announcement 3 March 2022 for full details of the Exploration Target.