Podium Minerals Ltd (ASX: POD) released high grade and value assay results from its Parks Reef Project today, sending the company's share price soaring. Earlier today, the Podium Minerals share price rocketed 27% to an all-time high of 54 cents.
Unfortunately for shareholders, with only minutes of trade remaining, Podium shares have retreated to 45 cents, which is still a 5.88% gain for the day.
Let's take a closer look at the mining company's latest assay results.
Park Reef assay results
The assay results announced today from Podium Minerals' Parks Reef Project follow on from the site's previous positive results.
The company has conducted further testing, using a more expensive assay technique to find rhodium and iridium.
Podium Minerals' extra testing paid off, revealing up to 1.35 grams per tonne of high-grade rhodium and up to 0.7 grams per tonne of iridium.
Previously, Podium Minerals had found platinum, palladium and gold at the project using conventional assay techniques.
The company's inferred mineral resources for Parks Reef contains 1,390,000 ounces of combined platinum, palladium and gold plus base metal credits with 53,900 tonnes of copper. The new rhodium results aren't included in the project's mineral resources due to limited testing having been completed.
According to the company's release, rhodium is known to be the best catalyst for the treatment of gasoline nitrogen oxides emissions. Podium also said iridium has an extremely high melting point and is the most corrosion-resistant metal known. It's often used as a hardening agent together with other platinum-grade metals.
Commentary from management
Podium Minerals executive chair Clayton Dodd commented on the findings, saying:
We are delighted with these initial results for Rhodium and Iridium and when combined with the results from the Platinum, Palladium and Gold assays from the same drill holes, unquestionably they represent the most significant results to date from Parks Reef.
With current rhodium prices some 20 times and iridium five times that of the current platinum price, it doesn't take a lot of grade of either to have a significant impact on the estimated weighted average price per Podium [platinum grade minerals] ounce.
Podium Minerals share price snapshot
The Podium Minerals share price is having a party on the ASX lately, with today's news just its latest boost.
Currently, the Podium Minerals share price is up 309% year to date. It's also up a whopping 2,150% over the last 12 months.
The company has a market capitalisation of around $119 million, with approximately 280 million shares outstanding.
