Canada-headquartered Platinum Group Metals (PTM) has confirmed that infill drilling is once again under way at the Waterberg palladium project site, in South Africa’s Bushveld Complex, after six of 16 boreholes were completed before the festive season break.
The completed borehole drill cores were sent to Intertek Genalysis Minerals, in Australia, for assay, returning intercepts of 4 m of palladium grading 4.33 g/t from 174 m and 3.5 m of palladium grading 1.91 g/t from 138 m.
The infill drill programme is targeting near-surface, inferred and indicated mineral resource blocks that have good potential for conversion to higher confidence levels and possibly additional tonnage for inclusion in early mine plans. PTM ultimately aims to reduce early capital expenditure requirements and the time to first mining.
PTM president and CEO Frank Hallam says the results of the drilling meet or exceed his expectations and are consistent with the company’s modelled mineral resources. “The shallow, thick and high-grade intercepts confirm the impressive nature of the Waterberg deposit.
“Our geologists will use the results of the drill programme to update the resource estimate on the project, which project engineers will then use to optimise the mine plan and development schedule,” he explains.
Waterberg is expected to be a fully mechanised, shallow, decline access platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold mine and one of the largest underground platinum group metal mines globally.