Impact Minerals (ASX:IPT) has confirmed the presence of high grade and rare platinum group metals in a wide arc stretching northeast to southeast of the Broken Hill township in New South Wales.
The results from new assay data and a review of previous results at the Broken Hill Joint venture demonstrated high to very high grades of the rare platinum group metals osmium, iridium, rhodium and ruthenium at many prospects.
These were also found at the company’s recently discovered zones of high grade copper-nickel-PGM mineralisation at the Red Hill Prospect at the southern end of the arc.
Notably, the Red Hill discovery contains some of the highest grades of PGM reported in Australia to date.
Managing director Mike Jones said these rare metals – used in many specialist hard-wearing metal alloys, electronics and for catalytic converters – are currently commanding premium prices and could deliver a significant economic credit to any resource defined within the Broken Hill project.
“These results reinforce our view that Impact’s Broken Hill project contains not just some of the highest grades of PGM reported in Australia but that they occur over a wide arc where we suspect even further PGM opportunities will be generated from more detailed surface exploration and drilling,” he added.
Rock Chip Samples
Most of the rock chip samples, which have been variably assayed for the different PGMs, come from the Moorkai Intrusive Complex in the northern part of the project area where the host ultramafic unit can be traced for 9 kilometres along trend.
At the Platinum Springs Prospect at the southern end of the Complex, a representative 120 kg sample of gossan returned 19.6 grams per tonne platinum, 50g/t palladium, 3g/t rhodium, 3g/t osmium, 4.4g/t iridium, 2g/t ruthenium, 0.57g/t gold, 0.34% nickel and 0.71% copper.
In addition, a nearby drill hole completed by a previous explorer discovered a 2 metre thick zone of fresh massive sulphide from 45 metres depth that returned 2 metres at 52g/t platinum equivalent comprising 10.9g/t platinum, 23.6g/t palladium, 4.5% copper and 6.1% nickel.
A one metre interval of this was sampled for the rare PGMS and returned:
1 metre at 1g/t rhodium, 1.3g/t osmium and 1.2g/t iridium.
At two other undrilled prospects in the Moorkai Intrusive Complex, previous explorers identified rhodium in grab samples at Round Hill and Back Ridge including respectively:
- 5.6g/t platinum, 8.8g/t palladium, 0.8g/t rhodium, 2.4% copper and 0.7% nickel; and
- 5.2g/t platinum, 6.5g/t palladium, 1.0g/t rhodium, 0.6% copper and 0.1% nickel.
At the undrilled Moorkai Prospect very high grade assays of up to 27.8g/t platinum, 27.9g/t palladium, 14g/t gold, 9% copper and 1,8% nickel were returned from gossan samples near small workings.
Although these samples were not been assayed for the rare PGMs, Impact considers it highly likely that they will contain appreciable amounts of those metals.
Further sampling will be conducted during the upcoming field season.
At the Little Darling Prospect in the centre of the Broken Hill Project area a rock chip sample of gossan returned 34.8g/t platinum, 76g/t palladium, 3.2g/t rhodium, 1.2g/t gold, 1.9% copper and
1.9% nickel.
All of these results add to those returned from the Red Hill Prospect at the southern end of the project where Impact has discovered a 25 to 30 metre thick near-surface layer of copper-nickel-PGM mineralisation containing two zones of high grade drill intercepts called the Upper and Lower Zones.
These returned:
Upper Zone:
- 9.5 metres at 4.7g/t 3PGM, 1.5% copper and 0.8% nickel including 5.1 metres at 11g/t 7PGM, 1.9% copper and 0.9% nickel (RHD001); and
- 5.2 metres at 7.9g/t 7PGM, 1.1% copper and 1.6% nickel (RHD006);
Lower Zone:
-9.9 metres at 6.7g/t 3PGM, 1.4% copper and 0.3% nickel including 4.2 metres at 11.8g/t 7PGM, 2.6% copper and 0.5% nickel (RHD001); and
13.8 metres at 6.6 g/t 7PGM, 1.1% copper and 0.3% nickel (RHD006).
(3PGM = Platinum-palladium-gold and 7PGM = 3PGM + osmium, iridium, rhodium, ruthenium where assayed)
Metal Value
The current spot metal prices in Australian dollars per ounce for the rare platinum group metals are: rhodium: $1,506/oz; iridium $763/oz: osmium $500/oz and ruthenium $65/oz.
In addition to platinum drawing $1,528/oz, palladium $1,015/oz and gold at $1,581/oz, these may be a significant economic credit to any resource defined within the Broken Hill project.
Osmium and iridium are used in many specialist hard-wearing metal alloys as well as the electronics industry. Rhodium and ruthenium are mostly used together with platinum and palladium for catalytic converters.
Next Steps
Impact has now identified six targets for further drilling at Red Hill.
Target T1 contains the newly discovered PGM-copper-nickel mineralisation which is interpreted to dip at a shallow angle to the south, and is close to true width.
In addition the mineralisation may be increasing in width and grade with depth and is in part coincident with an induced polarisation chargeability anomaly identified in a ground geophysical survey.
IP chargeability anomalies may be associated with disseminated sulphides and magnetite.
Follow up drill holes are required at T1 to test the mineralisation along trend and at depth.
The other five drill targets consist of a ground (T2) and down hole (T3) electromagnetic anomaly, a rock chip geochemical anomaly (T4), an induced polarisation anomaly (T5) and an airborne magnetic anomaly (T6).
The paperwork for the statutory approvals for a drill programme has been lodged and approval is expected within the next few weeks.
Analysis
The results from early exploration are looking very interesting indeed and potentially involve far larger rare PGM occurrences and scale than first indicated.
Shares in Impact Minerals are expected to trade higher today.
High grades of the rare platinum group metals (PGM) osmium, iridium, rhodium and ruthenium command premium prices with rapid demand in new markets such as electronics.
Proactive Investors believes that the Broken Hill project has significant exploration upside, not captured in the share price yet.
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