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Australia

Panton Project

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Categories

Overview

Mine TypeOpen Pit & Underground
StagePreliminary Economic Assessment
Commodities
  • Platinum
  • Palladium
  • Gold
  • Copper
  • Nickel
  • Cobalt
Mining Method
  • Truck & Shovel / Loader
  • Longhole stoping
Mine Life... Lock
SnapshotOn Dec 7, 2023, Future Metals NL announced a scoping study report on the Panton platinum metals project, with a prefeasibility planned.

Owners

SourceSource
CompanyInterestOwnership
Future Metals NL 100 % Indirect
Panton PGM-NI Project are held 100% by Panton Sill Pty Ltd which is a 100% owned subsidiary of Future Metals.

Deposit type

  • Intrusion related
  • Magmatic

Summary:

The Panton Intrusion is a layered mafic-ultramafic intrusion situated within the structurally complex Central Zone of the Halls Creek Orogen (“HCO”), in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The HCO consists of three north-north-easterly trending, highly deformed, medium to high-grade metamorphic zones comprising sedimentary, volcanic and intrusive rock suites. The HCO separates the Paleoproterozoic Kimberley Basin to the northwest, and the late Archaean Granites-Tanami Region to the southeast.

In outcrop the Panton intrusion is a 12km long, 3km wide and 1.7km thick layered, differentiated ultramafic-mafic body.

The Panton intrusion comprises a basal ultramafic zone of chromite rich olivine cumulate rocks; dunites, peridotites and transitional rocks, with an overlying mafic zone of similar thickness made up of leucogabbro, gabbro, ferrogabbro, gabbronorites, norites, pyroxenites, and anorthosite units.

The Panton intrusion has undergone a number of structural deformation events. These various events have resulted in large scale folding, faulting and widespread shearing of the ultramafic/mafic sequence. The intrusion is asymmetrically folded into a tight syncline, which gently plunges to the southwest. The fold is closed at the north-eastern end and faulted off at the southwest end. Other dominant structural features include the numerous small scale and lesser large-scale faulting. The main orientation of faults strike north-south and nearly all have a sinistral movement sense; with displacements from cm scale to in the order of 1,000m for the large fault separating the C and D sub Blocks. Faulting orthogonal to this set is present but less pronounced.

The interpreted weathering profile for Panton is relatively simple, showing a resemblance to the topographic profile. There is a thin veneer of highly weathered material, consisting of predominantly red-brown soil, alluvium and colluvium that covers much of the project area. Its depth ranges from a few centimetres to up to 10m but is largely confined to less than 1m.

In all there are three mineralised horizons, the Upper group chromitites (situated within the upper gabbroic sequence), the Middle group chromitites (situated in the upper portion of the ultramafic cumulate sequence) and the Lower group chromitites (situated toward the base of the ultramafic cumulate sequence). The primary PGM resource is contained within the upper portion of the ultramafic sequence, which in turn has been divided into five zones:
1. Top Reef Mineralised Zone: a sheared chromitite/talc-carbonate-chromitite rock zone (average 1.5m true thickness);
2. Upper Dunite: comprising all rocks between the top and middle reef mineralised zones;
3. Middle Reef Mineralised Zone: a thin (average 0.5m true thickness) chromitite reef with an associated talc-carbonate alteration halo;
4. Lower Dunite: comprising all rocks between the middle and lower reef mineralised zones;
5. Lower reef Mineralised Zone.

Reserves

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Mining Methods

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

Milling equipment has not been reported.

Processing

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Production

All production numbers are expressed as concentrate.

Production Costs

CommodityUnitsEstimated
Cash costs 3E (Pt, Pd, Au) USD 830 / oz *  USD
Assumed price 3E (Pt, Pd, Au) USD 1,244 / oz *  USD
Assumed price Palladium USD 800 / oz *  USD
Assumed price Platinum USD 1,800 / oz *  USD
Assumed price Nickel USD 22,500 / t *  USD
Assumed price Copper USD 4.08 / t *  USD
Assumed price Gold USD 1,400 / oz *  USD
* According to 2012 study / presentation.

Operating Costs

Currency2024
Total operating costs ($/t milled) USD 106.14 *  USD
* According to 2012 study.

Project Costs

MetricsUnitsLOM Total
Total CapEx $M USD  ......  Subscribe
Pre-tax Cash Flow (LOM) $M USD  ......  Subscribe
Pre-tax NPV @ 10% $M USD  ......  Subscribe
After-tax IRR, %  ......  Subscribe

Heavy Mobile Equipment

Fleet data has not been reported.

Personnel

Mine Management

Job TitleNameProfileRef. Date
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Jan 8, 2024
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Jan 8, 2024

Aerial view:

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