Continuous Mineralization From Resource Expansion Drilling At Stillwater West Critical Minerals Project
VANCOUVER - Group Ten Metals Inc. announced wide, high-grade intervals of nickel sulphide with palladium, platinum, rhodium, cobalt, copper and gold in a third tranche of drill results from the 14-hole resource expansion campaign completed at the Company's flagship Stillwater West PGE-Ni-Cu-Co + Au project in Montana.
Results continue to support the Company's priority objective of expanding the October 2021 inaugural mineral resource estimates with multiple wide and highly mineralized intervals returned in step-out drilling in the DR-Hybrid deposit area at Chrome Mountain. Drilling in 2021 focused on resource expansion in three of the five deposit areas delineated by the 2021 estimates. Similar wide and well-mineralized intervals have now been reported from all three deposit areas as announced December 20, 2021, and March 7, 2022. Mineralization remains open to expansion along trend and at depth in all five deposit areas, that are in the 12-kilometer-long resource area within the broader 32-kilometer-long land package in the lower Stillwater Igneous Complex.
Highlights: 1) CM2021-05 returned 400.8 meters of continuous battery and precious metal mineralization grading 0.30% Nickel Equivalent ("NiEq"), equal to 0.80 g/t Palladium Equivalent ("PdEq"), with successive contained higher-grade intervals including 96 meters of 0.60% NiEq (1.56 g/t PdEq) and including 13.2 meters of 3.33% NiEq (8.88 g/t PdEq) as 2.31% Ni, 1.51 g/t Pd+Pt+Au+Rh ("4E"), 0.35% Cu and 0.115% Co starting at 37.6 meters. This is one of the widest high-grade intercepts ever recorded in the Stillwater district. 2) The results from CM2021-05 represent an important new discovery with the same distinctive signature of high-grade nickel sulphide, platinum group metals and gold as encountered in CM2020-04, which returned 8.5 meters of 1.74% NiEq (or 4.65 g/t PdEq) within a broad mineralized package located approximately 125 meters to the west. This zone remains open to further expansion with additional drilling. 3) CM2021-06 returned 0.26% NiEq (0.71 g/t PdEq) over 345.0 meters, including 75.4 meters of 0.37% NiEq, or 0.99 g/t PdEq, and a second, lower interval with 148.4 meters of 0.30% NiEq, or 0.79 g/t PdEq. 4) CM2021-04 returned 247.2 meters of 0.21% NiEq (0.57 g/t PdEq) mineralization including two long intervals at higher grades. 4) Results also continue to highlight the potential for significant co-product rhodium values at Stillwater West, with drill samples in Chrome Mountain holes CM2021-04, -05, and -06 up to 0.36 g/t Rh within the mineralized horizons. At recent values, rhodium trades at more than 16 times the value of platinum and 8 times the value of palladium on a spot price basis at over USD 16,000 per ounce. Sibanye-Stillwater, adjacent to Group Ten's Stillwater West project, is the primary US producer. Supply constraints for rhodium have supported rising prices since 2017. 5) Assay results remain pending from five holes in the HGR deposit area at Iron Mountain and portions of holes CZ2021-01 and IM2021-04, in addition to rhodium assay results on a number of mineralized intervals reported to date.
These results, in addition to prior results demonstrate significant potential to expand the October 2021 mineral resource estimates with multiple long intervals at grades well above the 0.20% NiEq cut-off grade used in that study. Potential is also shown to expand existing resources at higher cut-off grades, such as 0.35% and 0.50% NiEq . Moreover, these results provide important intercepts in step-out drill holes located up to several hundred meters from the resource estimate block models.
Dr. Danie Grobler, Group Ten's Vice-President of Exploration, commented "I am excited to extend my experience obtained over the past two decades at the Platreef in the northern Bushveld Complex to Group Ten's Stillwater West project. We see significant comparability with Platreef-style mineralization in the lower Stillwater Complex and in particular, early evidence of higher-grade Flatreef pegmatoidal-style mineralization targets within the project's layered magmatic stratigraphy."
Michael Rowley, President and CEO, said, "The high-grade intercept in hole CM2021-05 is the latest in a series of exciting discoveries made by our team in the lower Stillwater complex through the development of a new predictive geologic model for this famously metal-rich district. This notable intercept demonstrates the same high tenor nickel sulphide mineralization as a similar interval in CM2020-04, 125 meters away, and is in an area that is completely outside of the current resource block model. It also represents one of the widest high-grade battery and precious metal intercepts to date in the Stillwater district. Further step-outs on this new target, situated between the existing DR and Hybrid deposit areas, are a priority for the coming season. Overall, we continue to see confirmation of a large mineralized system with an impressive endowment of eight of the commodities listed as critical by the US government. We look forward to reporting additional remaining drill results from the 2021 Iron Mountain drilling, exploration plans for 2022, and other news in the near term."