Canadian junior Group Ten Metals has unveiled plans for its largest exploration programme to date at its flagship Stillwater West platinum group element (PGE) project, in Montana.

The TSX-V-listed firm has retained Oretest Drilling and Simcoe Geoscience for the 2021 exploration programmes at the project, which adjoins Sibanye-Stillwater’s high-grade palladium and platinum mines.

Oretest will conduct a 10 000 m, multi-rig drill campaign with the aim of expanding drill-defined mineralisation at the three most advanced areas, while also targeting adjacent priority targets in the 2020 induced polarisation (IP) survey.

Results from the 2021 drilling are expected to drive expansion of the inaugural mineral resource estimates that are in development at each of the Chrome Mountain, Camp and Iron Mountain target areas, said Group Ten.

Simcoe Geoscience has been retained for a planned 54-line Alpha IP survey to expand on the success of the 2020 survey which produced wide, high-level, and coincident chargeability and conductivity anomalies with exceptional continuity across the 9.2-km length and 800 m depth of the 3D model.

“. . . IP geophysics and drilling proved to be a powerful combination last year, driving the successful expansion of known mineralisation into untested adjacent targets and identifying multiple new high-grade magmatic horizons. We look forward to building on that success at the three most advanced target areas with a view to expanding inaugural resources that are targeted for release this summer,” said president and CEO Michael Rowley.

Group Ten's focus is on polymetallic deposits of battery metals, PGEs and gold in a metal-rich mining district, which supports the highest-grade palladium/platinum mines in the world, as well a smelter and refinery complex.

The company believes it has potential for bulk tonnage Platreef-style deposits of nickel and copper sulphide that hosts palladium, platinum, rhodium, gold and cobalt within the lower Stillwater complex, based on known parallels with South Africa’s Bushveld complex.