Pantoro Ltd (ASX:PNR) has identified a large platinum group element (PGE) system during ongoing exploration at its Edison Prospect within the Halls Creek tenement package in Western Australia.
PGEs were identified by previous explorers in the region and Pantoro has continued to assess the potential following confirmation of PGE mineralisation while exploring for gold at the Edison prospect hosted within the Lamboo ultramafic complex.
Pantoro’s drilling to date has only evaluated 600 metres of the ultramafic basal contact, with strong and consistent PGE results received in wide intersections from surface including:
- 31 metres at 2.42 g/t platinum +palladium +gold from surface;
- 38 metres at 2.34 g/t platinum +palladium +gold from 1-metre;
- 26 metres at 1.42 g/t platinum +palladium +gold from 9 metres;
- 34 metres at 2.02 g/t platinum +palladium +gold from surface; and
- 39.4 metres at 1.54 g/t platinum +palladium +gold from 8.4 metres, including 24.7 metres at 1.80 g/t platinum +palladium +gold from 9.4 metres.
“Platform to advance exploration”
Pantoro managing director Paul Cmrlec said: “These PGE results are an example of the huge untapped potential of the Kimberley region which has seen a small amount of exploration activity when compared to other more mature mineral fields within Western Australia.
“The mineralisation identified in the Lamboo Ultramafic Complex is only a few kilometres from Nicolsons Gold Mine and Pantoro’s existing infrastructure provides a perfect platform to advance exploration within these deposits.
“In addition to the deposits identified at Lamboo, tenure that we have acquired around the Grants Creek Project in recent years provides additional outstanding prospectively proximal to the Panton Sill deposit which has a current mineral resource of 2.4 million ounces at 5.2 g/t PGM & gold.
“Surface rock chips in the area have previously confirmed PGE mineralisation within Pantoro’s tenure.”
Shares were 12.5% higher to A$0.225 while Pantoro's market cap before trade today was approximately $281.8 million.
Edison drilling location plan.
Drilling results
Pantoro’s Nicolsons tenements contain about 20 kilometres of the prospective basal contact where historical drilling confirms mineralisation similar to that seen at the Edison prospect in multiple locations along the contact.
The company’s drilling to date has been focused on the Edison prospect, however additional drilling around other identified locations is to be undertaken during the current 2021 Kimberley drilling season.
Other strong results returned at Edison Prospect include:
- 40 metres at 0.98 g/t platinum +palladium +gold from surface;
- 15 metres at 0.93 g/t platinum +palladium +gold from 62 metres;
- 41 metres at 1.68 g/t platinum +palladium +gold from 1-metre;
- 16 metres at 0.93 g/t platinum +palladium +gold from 44 metres;
- 16 metres at 0.92 g/t platinum +palladium +gold from 54 metres;
- 32 metres at 0.90 g/t platinum +palladium +gold from 14 metres;
- 50 metres at 1.37 g/t platinum +palladium +gold from11 metres;
- 30 metres at 1.56 g/t platinum +palladium +gold from surface.
Regional potential
Within Pantoro’s broader regional tenement package of 1,000 square kilometres, the northern tenements host large areas of ultramafics.
Intrusives of the McIntosh suite which are associated with nickel-copper and PGE mineralisation are noted within the tenements.
One of these is the Big Ben intrusive which has been interpreted to be the faulted offset of the Panton Sill, with palladium and platinum mineralisation noted in rock chips from historic exploration work also conducted by Thundelarra.
Lamboo ultramafic complex.
Follow up plan
Pantoro is set to begin a 2,500-metre drill program to follow up on the additional targets identified along strike and to the west of the Edison prospect.
The program is intended to identify additional mineralisation in the lower and basal stratigraphy of the Lamboo ultramafic complex.
There were a number of holes drilled by Pantoro initially that were not assayed for platinum and palladium with pulps from these intervals being located so additional assays can be undertaken.
In addition to the drilling undertaken by Thundelarra, a 50-kilogram sighter metallurgical test on a sample from Edison was undertaken by METS in 2007.
While the test-work was preliminary in nature, it did confirm that the gold component was recoverable via standard cyanide leach, whilst both palladium and platinum were recoverable to a concentrate via gravity and magnetic separation.
Pantoro will complete the current phase of drilling ahead of additional confirmatory test-work.