LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Future Metals announced an updated mineral resource estimate for its wholly-owned Panton platinum group metals-nickel project in northern Western Australia on Tuesday, of five million ounces of palladium, platinum and gold and 238 kilotonnes of nickel, at a grade of 1.66 palladium equivalent grams per tonne.
The AIM-traded firm said the updated estimate confirmed the Panton deposit to be of a "global scale", consisting of 129 million tonnes at 1.2 grams of platinum group elements per tonne, 0.19% nickel, and 154 parts of cobalt per million.

It said that represented a 108% increase in contained platinum group metals, while the contained nickel resource had increased 526% during the company's 12 months of ownership of Panton.

The firm said it was the second-largest platinum group metals deposit in Australia, only surpassed by Chalice Mining's Gonneville discovery, which has a mineral resource estimate of 10 million ounces of platinum group metals, 530 kilotonnes of nickel, 330 kilotonnes of copper, and 53 kilotonnes of cobalt, at 1.6 palladium equivalent grams per tonne.

Drilling confirmed bulk dunite mineralisation continued "well beyond" the current mineral resource estimate, the board explained, with drilling to 800 metres.

There was also "significant" further growth potential, with the Panton deposit remaining open at depth and along strike, and the estimate excluding the large 'Northern Anomaly', where drilling confirmed broad widths of platinum group metals, nickel and copper mineralisation from surface across a strike of 2.5 kilometres.

Metallurgical test work was now underway, replicating flowsheets of analogous operating mines in South Africa, including the Sedibelo mine which had "comparable" mineralogy and grade.

Scoping development studies would also begin, the company said, assessing "optimal development pathways" for Panton, both high-grade and bulk tonnage scenarios, and a combination of both, leading into a planned pre-feasibility study in parallel with further exploration and metallurgical work.

The company said it remained well-funded, with cash of about AUD 3.6m (£2.05m) as at 31 May, to advance its low-cost test work and development studies.

"This updated resource estimate is a pivotal milestone for the company, demonstrating the potential for Panton to be a project of global scale outside the primary supply jurisdictions of Russia and South Africa," said managing director and chief executive officer Jardee Kininmonth.

"The inclusion of the mineralised envelope surrounding the chromite reefs has significantly increased Panton's resource and scale potential, growing contained ounces of platinum group metals by over 100% and increasing the contained nickel by over 500%.

"There remains significant exploration upside at Panton with potential to add both tonnes and grade across numerous targets."

Kininmonth said the company intended to follow up the success of the new mineral resource estimate with a drill programme, which would test a number of exploration targets, including the "impressive" Northern Anomaly.

"The company continues to progress the metallurgy work at Panton, expanding on early exploratory sighter test work with a more systematic programme where analogous projects from the platinum group metals industry in South Africa are being utilised to determine an appropriate flow sheet configuration for the Panton mineralisation.

"We are now able to move towards a scoping study to make a preliminary assessment on the best path forward for Panton."

At 1231 BST, shares in Future Metals were up 6.12% at 9.02p.

Reporting by Josh White at Sharecast.com.

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