Southern Palladium, which listed on the JSE and Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) last week, says that it has completed the physical survey at the Bengwenyama project as it eyes an extensive exploration programme ahead.
Southern Palladium recently acquired a 70 percent interest in South Africa’s Miracle Upon Miracle Investments Proprietary (MUM). MUM owns the rights to prospect the Bengwenyama platinum group elements project.
In an interview, managing director Johan Odendaal said the project was situated about 300km east of Johannesburg, close to the town of Steelpoort and Burgersfort.
“We are right there in the middle of the mining hub. There is readily available power and water and services. In terms of skills, we have the necessary skills in the surrounding area of the project. This project is one of the last remaining platinum group metal (PGM) projects to be developed in the outcrop,” he said.
He said the project had two reefs, the Marinsky reef and Ugie 2 reef. The company's focus would be on Ugie 2 reef.
“We intend to start drilling early in July. We are going to drill 63 boreholes in our phase 1 programme. Those 63 boreholes will be on the order of 25 000 metres that we are going to drill in the shallow areas. The intention is to upgrade the resources and increase confidence levels in those resources to help us on the way forward once we do the feasibility studies.
“Normally, in this process you start with a physical survey, which is what we released today. The data confirms the geological structures that we already know on the farm,” he said.
Odendaal said this was positive news for Southern Palladium.
“In terms of the structures, there are no new structures that we were unaware of. It actually means in the area we want to drill, there is minimum loss of reef, which is very positive for us,” he said.
Odendaal said the junior miner recently started a resource in the third category of close to 20 million ounces. There was also an additional exploration target of 15 to 34 million ounces that it could explore.
Odendaal said there was a place for junior minors in the PGM sector.
“I think in our case we set quite a sizeable project, which we can develop into a top-tier operation. If you look at the downstream refining there are third parties that take the concentrate,” he said.
Odendaal said Southern Palladium’s balance sheet was strong and the company was debt-free.
“We just finished a capital raise of A$12 million dollars (about R220m) that we have in cash. We will use the balance sheet to embark on an extensive exploration programme,” he said.
Odendaal said the company's current focus was on the project, but once that was completed, Southern Palladium might invest in more companies.
BUSINESS REPORT