The Panton intrusive is a layered, differentiated mafic to ultramafic body that has been intruded into the sediments of the Proterozoic Lamboo Complex in the Kimberley Region of Western Australia. The Panton Intrusive has undergone several folding and faulting events that have resulted in a south westerly plunging synclinal structure some 10km long and 3km wide. High grade PGM mineralisation is hosted within a number of stratiform chromite reefs within the ultramafic sequence.

The 2012 BFS Review envisaged the development of an open cut mine followed by the sequential development of two underground access declines commencing in the second year of the Project with an average mining rate of 600,000tpa ore. Mining would be mechanised using a long hole, up-hole stoping method.

The 2012 BFS Review assumed throughput of 600,000tpa at an average head grade of 5.47 g/t 3E and a recovery of 79% Pt+Pd+Au, producing an average of over 80,000ozpa in a high grade concentrate.

The proposed plant incorporated a standard crushing - grinding - flotation circuit to produce a low grade concentrate which is then treated on site through the patented Calcine Leach-Metals Recovery Process developed.

The process flow sheet is based on extensive laboratory test work of open cut and underground samples, combined with pilot plant test work for milling - flotation and the Calcine-Leach-Metals Recovery Process.

Testwork on Panton ore by Panoramic in 2014/15 demonstrated that high-grade PGM concentrates (circa 250g/t PGM) can be produced by standard fine grinding and flotation techniques.

Testwork completed in FY2019 showed that in addition to producing a high-grade PGM concentrate, a “metallurgical grade” chromite concentrate by-product (circa 40% Cr2O3) can be recovered from the high-grade PGM concentrate flotation tails using simple wet high intensity magnetic separation (WHIMS) techniques. Tests on high-grade PGM concentrate samples showed that direct, high quality refinery feed products can be produced from the concentrate by roasting, HCl leaching and direct precipitation techniques.