Transcript
Amalie Schreurs: East Kimberly platinum group element focused explorer Peako has recently announced assays from its Phase 2 RC program undertaken at the Eastman Project. We are joined today by Executive Director Rae Clark, who will talk us through these outstanding results and what is next on the cards for Peako. Rae, can you please tell us about the recent program at the Eastman Project?
Rae Clark: Phase 2 RC drilling program at the Eastman Project in the Kimberly comprised 15 holes for about 2100 meters. It was designed to follow up at three prospects where we defined encouraging results from our earlier reconnaissance program that we completed in 2022.
Amalie Schreurs: That’s great. And today’s announcement included some outstanding intersects. Can you talk us through these?
Rae Clark: The Phase 2 results define the Brumby prospect as a priority target for further drilling. We’ve defined PGE mineralization of widths of 30 meters at 1.45 grams per ton palladium equivalent and 14 meters at 1.45 grams per ton palladium equivalent. And that mineralization is continuous for 300 meters and it’s open in both directions along strike for about 1.4kms.
Amalie Schreurs: It sounds like Brumby is going to be the key focus for the follow up exploration in 2023. Can you shed some more light on this?
Rae Clark: As well as being open in both directions to the east and west, Brumby is also open up dip and down dip and will be a focus for our upcoming drilling program. We’ll be doing step out drilling to extend the mineralization infill drilling with a view to moving towards resource definition. We’re also going to be undertaking some diamond drilling at Brumby for which we’ve received a grant from the WA government which will co fund that drilling. The diamond drilling will help us to define the PGE mineralization at Brumby and it will also provide important geological information that will enable us to enhance our exploration model to assist us with targeting across the 16.5K long Eastman intrusion.
Amalie Screurs: That’s great. And can you take us through how the Phase 1 and 2 programs came together which has allowed for the successful identification of multiple targets?
Rae Clark: We designed our 2022 field season in two parts. Phase 1 was designed as an initial reconnaissance. The Eastman intrusion stretches for 16 and a half kilometres, most of it up to the west, so about half of its undercover. We knew from historical drilling that it was mineralized with PGE, but most of the historical drilling had focused on chromite seams within the ultramafic horizon. We took a different approach and we decided to drill fence lines across the ultramafic layers of the intrusion. Along the 16 and a half kilometre strike, we drilled reconnaissance fence lines across eight prospects and all eight returned anomalous results. The Phase 2 program was designed as a short program ahead of the onset of the wet season in the Kimberley. We focused on three prospects where we received encouraging results from the Phase 1 drilling. In addition to drilling at Brumby, we drilled nine holes at two other prospects. Being Louisa and The Gap. All nine holes intersected PGE Mineralization, establishing both as viable exploration targets requiring additional follow up drilling.
Amalie Schreurs: That’s great. It sounds like you’ve got some good targets for follow up there. By way of background, what are Platinum group elements or PGEs?
Rae Clark: Platinum Group Elements are a group of six elements that are very rare in the earth’s crust platinum, palladium, ruthenium, iridium, rhodium and osmium. They used in a number of applications, but we hear a lot more about them currently because they have the characteristic of being excellent catalysts, so they’re key for enabling a transition to clean energy.
Amalie Schreurs: Great. Sounds like they going are to be key. We’re going to hear a lot more about them. Can you tell us about the type of PGA mineralization you have seen there at Eastman?
Rae Clark: The PGE mineralization at Eastman is dominated by palladium, which trades at about US one $600 an ounce on a 3E basis, which is the aggregate of platinum, palladium and gold. Palladium represents about 60% of our 3E PGE mix. As well as reporting 3E numbers, we report palladium equivalent numbers, which in addition to the palladium, platinum and gold, accounts for the associated base metals of nickel, copper and cobalt. In addition, we can expect further value from the very rare and valuable, more minor PGE of rhodium and iridium, which we know are also present at the Eastman PGE intrusion.
Amalie Schreurs: That’s great. And so it sounds like a really exciting time for Peako. What could the investors expect over the coming months?
Rae Clarke: These are outstanding results from Brumby. They’re the best we’ve received to date. They set Brumby as a foundation for our next drilling program, where we’ll be undertaking infill and step out drilling with a view to moving towards resource definition drilling. In addition, we’ll be targeting other areas across the 16.5Km long intrusion where we know we have anomalous results, and also other areas where there’s been no drilling with the view to defining multiple resources across the intrusion.
Amalie Schreurs: Thanks so much for your time today, Rae. It’s been great to hear about Peako and I’m really looking forward to hearing about future news flow for everyone. Just a reminder, you can register via the website to stay up to date with news flow from Peako. Thanks so much.
