Palladium One up 33% on Finland project latest

Palladium One Mining Inc. [PDM-TSXV;NKORF-OTC; 7N11-FSE] shares jumped 33% on Wednesday December 18 after the company released an update on the status of its palladium-dominant Lantinen Koillisma  (LK) PGE-Cu-Ni project in north-central Finland.

Palladium One is a platinum-group elements, nickel, copper exploration and development company. Its assets consist of LK Project and the Tyko Ni-Cu-PGE property near Marathon, Ont.

On Wednesday, the company said it plans to conduct a 75 line-kilometre Induced Polarization [IP] geophysical program along with a diamond drilling program of up to 5,000 metres at the LK Project.

The Kaukua deposit of the LK Project hosts 635,600 palladium-equivalent ounces of Indicated Resources, grading 1.80 g/t palladium equivalent, containing 11 million tonnes at 0.81 g/t palladium, 0.27 g/t platinum, 0.09 g/t gold (1.17 g/t palladium-equivalent) 0.15% copper and 0.09% nickel.

On top of that is 525,800 palladium equivalent ounces of Inferred Resources grading 1.50 g/t palladium equivalent, contained in 11 million tonnes at 0.6 g/t palladium, 0.20 g/t platinum, 0.08 g/t gold (0.92 g/t palladium-equivalent), 0.13% copper and 0.08% nickel.

The company has said Kaukua is open for expansion, while the Kaukua South, Murtolampi and Haukaiho mineralized zones require systematic exploration via diamond drilling to follow up mineralized drill intercepts.

“We are very excited to be initiating exploration in Finland, at our palladium-dominant LK Project,” said Palladium One President and CEO Derrick Weyrauch. “LK has less than four kilometres systematically drill-tested along its 38 kilometres of favourable basal contact,” he said. “We see a tremendous opportunity to expand our existing resource base using a systematic process of conducting IP to identify and model zones of higher sulphide concentration, which have been shown to correlate with higher grades.”

Weyrauch said the existing resource is pit constrained, in a conceptual open-pit that is only 275 metres deep, with a favourable waste-to-resource ratio of 3:1, suggesting a potentially low-cost mining scenario.

“A major focus of our IP and drilling program will target the Haukiaho Zone where we already have a robust inventory of drllling data, that requires infill drilling prior to resource estimation,” he said.

Meanwhile, the company said he LK Project has had seven of eight exploration permit renewal applications approved by the Finnish Mining Authority, while the eighth remains under consideration.

Additionally, two Reservation Decision applications have been approved by the Mining Authority. In total, only one permit renewal and one new permit application remain under review, the company said.

Palladium One shares advanced on the news, rising 33.3% or $0.03 to 12 cents on volume of 943,200. The shares are currently trading in a 52-week range of $0.04 and 15 cents.

Under Finnish law, a third party may appeal a Mining Authority decision within 30 days of the decision being rendered.