Jeepers! It's worth reminding one's self about the PGM potential of BBX's deposits...
On 1 June 2017 BBX announced that a 260kg surface sample of unweathered mineralised gabbro, collected from an area of approximately 110m x 200m at the Adelar garimpo (see fig. 4) returned 102.18 g/t gold, 62.32g/t platinum, 36.72g/t palladium and 135.20g/t silver via a hydrometallurgical process. http://bbxminerals.com.au/tres-estados/
I saw the article below and it had me looking up the old results....
Palladium may soon be worth more than gold
The price of palladium has had an impressive climb of nearly 30% over the past six weeks, and could become more valuable than gold for the first time in 16 years.
Futures prices for palladium which is widely used in the pollution-control catalytic converters on gasoline-powered vehicles, jumped from a mid-August settlement low of $837.20 an ounce to end at $1,072.80 on Friday, the highest finish since January. That’s when prices hit a record above $1,100, based on FactSet data going back to 1984.
“Car demand is solid across the world, and trends are toward big SUVs in the U.S. and small gasoline engines in Asia,” says R. Michael Jones, chief executive officer of Platinum Group Metals “All of these are growing palladium demand.”
Automotive demand for palladium is expected to rise to a record high of nearly 8.6 million ounces this year, after logging an all-time high of 8.4 million last year, according to specialty chemicals company Johnson Matthey.
The firm reported that demand for palladium exceeded supply by 801,000 ounces in 2017, far more than the deficit of 89,000 in 2016. It forecasts another shortfall this year, though a narrower one, of 239,000 ounces.
With the majority of the supply of platinum-group metals, or PGMs, coming from Russia, the “potential of further economic sanctions is an overhanging threat to supply,” says Grant. It also “seems logical that China would be bidding up the PGMs in an effort to secure needed supplies before any additional tariffs impinge on their ability to do so,” he adds.
Jones points out that about 40% of palladium supply comes as a byproduct of platinum mining in South Africa, and that has been declining on the back of escalating costs and low labor productivity. “Regardless of the palladium price, since it is a byproduct metal, the supply is shrinking,” he says.
