Palladium One drilling suggests opportunity to add ounces at Haukiaho target and announces major discovery at Kaukua South

2020.09.30

Continuing with drill results from the Läntinen Koillismaa (LK) PGE-Cu-Ni Project in Finland, Vancouver’s Palladium One Mining Inc. (TSX-V: PDM, FRA: 7N11, OTC: NKORF) has delivered its first diamond drill assays from the Haukiaho Trend, located about 12 kilometers southwest of the Kaukua deposit. At the same time, PDM delivered big news from the current drill program at Kaukua South.

Haukiaho Trend

In January 2020, PDM commenced an induced polarization (IP) survey, designed to zero in on shallow zones of conductivity, containing higher sulfide concentrations. These zones were drill-tested with close to 4,500 meters of diamond drilling. 

PDM completed five grids of an IP survey that included the following target areas: Kaukua South, Murtolampi, Haukiaho, Haukiaho East, and Tilsa.  

In May, Palladium One identified new drill targets of strong chargeability, from the part of the IP survey that covered +5 km of the 17-km Haukiaho Trend. Two of the three targets are outside of the historic 2013 Haukiaho resource, estimated in an NI 43-101 report to contain 23.2 million tonnes grading 1.51 g/t palladium-equivalent (Pd-Eq) (0.31 g/t Pd, 0.12 g/t Pt, 0.10 g/t Au, 0.21% Cu, and 0.14% Ni), at a cut-off grade of 0.1 g/t Pd.

Of note, Haukiaho hosts the highest nickel grades on the LK project, with potential for a large, bulk tonnage deposit. The 2013 Haukiaho resource used a very low cut-off (0.1 g/t Pd), was not pit-constrained, and encompassed widely spaced drilling, with an apparent focus on maximizing tonnage, not grades. No PGE assays were conducted. As a result, based on the previous work conducted at Haukiaho, an opportunity exists to increase grade and known mineralization.

“It appears that the Haukiaho trend hosts significantly more mineralization than outlined in the historic 2013 Haukiaho resource estimate. The fact that we have two large chargeability drill targets located immediately to the east of the historic resource suggests significant potential to outline additional mineralization along the Haukiaho Trend. As a result, not only do we plan to convert the 2013 historic resource into a current NI43-101 resource estimate following infill drilling, we have the opportunity to significantly expand mineralization to the east,” Derrick Weyrauch, President and CEO, said in the May 7 news release.

On May 26, PDM reported a large chargeability drill target at Haukiaho East, located within a 200m-wide drilling gap, hosted within the 2013 resource estimate. Until now, this newly identified chargeability anomaly had only been tested by one historic diamond drill hole, which did not intersect the core of the anomaly.

Haukiaho Drill Results

As a result of the covid-19 outbreak, in March the company suspended its H1 2020 exploration program at the LK project. Drilling resumed in August, with a focus on expanding known mineralization.

The most significant result from Haukiaho came from Hole LK20-010 (pictured below), which intersected a wide interval – 34.2m at 2.09 g/t Pd-Eq (0.77g/t PGE, 0.22% nickel, 0.20% copper), within a larger zone grading 83.3m at 1.27 g/t Pd-Eq. The other two holes — LK20-008 and LK20-009 — returned 16.2m at 1.99 g/t Pd-Eq and 6.6m at 2.34 Pd-Eq respectively.

All three holes were designed to expand higher-grade zones at Haukiaho, and in the case of LK20-010, to test the large chargeability anomaly described above at Haukiaho East.

Cross section looking west showing hole LK20-010 with chargeability iso shells

The mineralized interval for LK20-008 is likely wider than reported, according to Palladium One – initial sampling ended in mineralized quartz-albite footwall. Additional sampling is currently underway. Hole LK20-009 intersected a thick diabase dyke shortly after the hole entered the mineralized zone, resulting in only partially testing the zone.

With these results in hand, especially for LK20-010, Weyrauch believes that drilling to target higher chargeability areas could discover wide zones of higher-grade mineralization.

Moreover, since the company has found a wide interval in an area that had not been tested, there is potential to increase the 2013 Haukiaho resource area (represented by the red circles in the figure below).

The consistency of the company’s IP surveys is telling. So far this year, in the three IP survey grids totaling 7.5 km of strike length conducted along the Haukiaho Trend, each was able to identify chargeability anomalies.

The Haukiaho Trend encompasses over 17 km of favorable basal contact, of which the 2013 Haukiaho resource only occupies some 1.5 km of strike length.

Phase 1 Drilling – Recent Results

The first phase of drilling at LK, which resumed in August with the Kaukua South and Murtolampi zones in the greater Kaukua area, was completed earlier this month for a total of 4,490m completed in 26 holes, with results still trickling in.

Like with Haukiaho, drilling at Kaukua South was to test the eastern extension of the greater than 4-km-long chargeability anomaly identified from the earlier IP survey.

That drill hole (LK20-006), in an area with no previous drilling, intersected 166.7m at 1.16 g/t Pd-Eq, including 63.4m at 1.88g/t Pd-Eq.

This result was important as it confirmed the existence of near-surface palladium-rich sulfide (PGE-Cu-Ni) mineralization and suggested significant additional open-pittable mineralization remains to be delineated in the greater Kaukua area.

Two weeks later, results from the first diamond drill hole to test the Murtolampi zone, lying 2.5 km north of the Kaukua deposit, intersected 87.2m at 1.43 g/t Pd-Eq, including 20.2 at 2.26 g/t Pd-Eq.

Läntinen Koillismaa (LK) Project

The geology at LK dates back to the early Palaeoproterozoic era, ~2.4 billion years ago, during which igneous activity produced mafic-ultramafic rocks containing palladium-rich copper-nickel-platinum group elements (Cu-Ni-PGE) sulfide minerals, chromium, as well as iron-titanium-vanadium.

Geologists think the deposit is a “basal Cu-Ni-PGE bearing sulfide accumulation within the larger Koillismaa Layered Mafic Intrusion” that is part of an intrusion belt that runs east-west across Finland and into neighboring Russia.

The exploration permit applications — covering a grand total of 2,485.3 hectares — are divided into two groups: the Kaukua Group consisting of the Kaukua and Murtolampi targets mentioned above and the Haukiaho Group covering the Lipeävaara and Haukiaho targets as well as Salmivaara, which represents the eastern and western extension of Haukiaho.

This project draws comparison with the Platreef type deposits of the Bushveld Igneous Complex in South Africa, the largest layered igneous intrusion within the Earth’s crust. It is also where most of the world’s platinum is produced.

Surface sampling and previous drilling have shown evidence of palladium, platinum, gold, copper, cobalt and nickel.
Last year Palladium One published the first (maiden) NI 43-101-compliant resource at the Kaukua target, putting the company on track for developing an open-pit PGE-nickel-copper mine in Finland. 

Using a 0.3 g/t Pd cutoff grade, the optimized pit-constrained mineral resource at Kaukua includes: 

• 635,600 Pd_Eq ounces of Indicated resources grading 1.80 g/t Pd_Eq (“palladium equivalent”) contained in 11 million tonnes

• 525,800 Pd_Eq ounces of Inferred resources grading 1.50 g/t Pd_Eq contained in 11 million tonnes

Palladium One wishes to add multiples of the existing Kaukua resource in the Kaukua South area, which adjoins Kaukua, as well as to update/ increase the resource estimate at Haukiaho.

Kaukua South Discovery

And it appears the company has done just that. In a news release Tuesday, Palladium One said drilling at Kaukua South has extended magmatic sulfide mineralization by more than 3 km east of hole LK20-006, which returned 63.4m at 1.88 g/t Pd_Eq. Because historical drilling returned 33m @ 1.9 g/t Pd_Eq 600m west of the hole, that means a new strike length of about 4 km – a more than six-fold increase from the previous 600m-long strike.

Eleven holes were drilled on the Kaukua South extension of the Kaukua deposit. Each contained magmatic sulfide mineralization. The results demonstrate Kaukua South has the same host rocks as Kaukua, and confirm that the Kaukua South IP anomaly, shown by earlier geophysics, is the result of magmatic sulfides.

According to the company, preliminary indications are that Kaukua South could be several times the size of the 2013 resource at Kaukua that delineated 1.1 million Pd_Eq ounces of Indicated and Inferred resources.

“We are very excited to report this major new discovery, and are processing assays on a rush basis,” said Derrick Weyrauch, President and Chief Executive Officer.

“The Kaukua South strike extension is exceptionally significant because it has shallow disseminated sulfide mineralization the same as Kaukua and points to the footprint of a large-scale mineral system,” said Dr. Peter C. Lightfoot, one of Palladium One Mining’s directors and a globally recognized expert in magmatic precious metal and nickel-copper-cobalt sulphide ore deposits. Dr. Lightfoot also stated, “LK is shaping up to potentially be the largest palladium dominant open pit project in a best in class mining jurisdiction, globally.”

Planning for a Phase 2 drill program at Kaukua South is underway, where drilling wil take place on 100-meter spacings along the new 4-km strike. 

Over the past year, the palladium explorer’s shares traded in the range of C$0.05 to $0.24 per share (at $0.11 by market close Sept. 29). The company has about 126 million shares outstanding, valuing it at a current C$14.5 million.

Palladium One
TSX.V:PDM, OTC:NKORF, Frankfurt:7N11
Cdn$0.11, 2020.08.25
Shares Outstanding 126,136,599m
Market cap Cdn$13.87m
PDM website

Richard (Rick) Mills
aheadoftheherd.com

subscribe to my free newsletter
Ahead of the Herd Facebook

Legal Notice / Disclaimer

Ahead of the Herd newsletter, aheadoftheherd.com, hereafter known as AOTH.

Please read the entire Disclaimer carefully before you use this website or read the newsletter. If you do not agree to all the AOTH/Richard Mills Disclaimer, do not access/read this website/newsletter/article, or any of its pages. By reading/using this AOTH/Richard Mills website/newsletter/article, and whether or not you actually read this Disclaimer, you are deemed to have accepted it. 

Any AOTH/Richard Mills document is not, and should not be, construed as an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to purchase or subscribe for any investment.

AOTH/Richard Mills has based this document on information obtained from sources he believes to be reliable but which has not been independently verified. AOTH/Richard Mills makes no guarantee, representation or warranty and accepts no responsibility or liability as to its accuracy or completeness. Expressions of opinion are those of AOTH/Richard Mills only and are subject to change without notice. AOTH/Richard Mills assumes no warranty, liability or guarantee for the current relevance, correctness or completeness of any information provided within this Report and will not be held liable for the consequence of reliance upon any opinion or statement contained herein or any omission. Furthermore, AOTH/Richard Mills assumes no liability for any direct or indirect loss or damage or, in particular, for lost profit, which you may incur as a result of the use and existence of the information provided within this AOTH/Richard Mills Report.

AOTH/Richard Mills is not a registered broker/financial advisor and does not hold any licenses. These are solely personal thoughts and opinions about finance and/or investments – no information posted on this site is to be considered investment advice or a recommendation to do anything involving finance or money aside from performing your own due diligence and consulting with your personal registered broker/financial advisor. You agree that by reading AOTH/Richard Mills articles, you are acting at your OWN RISK. In no event should AOTH/Richard Mills liable for any direct or indirect trading losses caused by any information contained in AOTH/Richard Mills articles. Information in AOTH/Richard Mills articles is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security. AOTH/Richard Mills is not suggesting the transacting of any financial instruments but does suggest consulting your own registered broker/financial advisor with regards to any such transactions

Richard owns shares of PDM and PDM is a paid advertiser on Richards site Ahead of the Herd

Richard does not own shares of Palladium One (TSX.V:PDM). PDM is a paid advertiser on Richard’s site aheadoftheherd.com