New Age Metals (TSX-V:NAM, OTCQB:NMTLF) Inc said it has launched a rhodium assay program on its River Valley palladium project in northern Ontario.
The program will investigate whether rhodium could be a payable metal for any future potential mining and mineral operation at River Valley, New Age Metals (TSX-V:NAM, OTCQB:NMTLF) said.
The company decided to initiate a rhodium evaluation program focused on re-assaying historical River Valley drill holes based on improving metal prices in 2020.
Historical drill holes to be sampled were selected from representative drill cross-sections of priority mineralized zones, starting at the Pine and Lismer North Zones in Phases 1 and 2 in 2020 and 2021, and then progressing to the Dana South and Lismer Ridge Zones in Phases 3 and 4 in 2022 and 2023, according to New Age Metals.
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The company shared results from Phases 1 and 2 of the evalutation program.
In Phase 1, rhodium at Pine Zone was determined from 303 out of 2,443 drill cores from 2015 to 2020, the company said. Assays ranged in grade from the lower detection limit up to 0.177 grams per ton (g/t) rhodium, and 50 of the samples returned assays over 0.05 g/t.
In addition, rhodium was interpreted from statistical analysis to occur with sulphides and not chromite, which New Age noted differs from other rhodium-bearing deposits elsewhere and could potentially simplify future metallurgical recovery processes.
In Phase 2, rhodium at Lismer North was determined from 187 samples, with the highest assay result reaching 0.595 g/t rhodium. A total of 25 samples returned assays greater than 0.05 g/t.
Phases 3 and 4 of the rhodium evaluation program will take samples from historical drill holes completed at the Dana South and Lismer Ridge Zones for assay at Geoscience Laboratory in 2022 and 2023, New Age said.
Rhodium is mainly used in catalytic converters designed to clean vehicle emissions. South Africa is the world's largest producer, followed by Russia, Zimbabwe, Canada and the US.
In March 2022, rhodium prices reached US$20,000 per ounce.
River Valley is a district-scale project around 100 kilometres from the mining city of Sudbury, Ontario, which New Age believes is one of North America's largest undeveloped platinum group metals projects.
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