Palladium’s bull market is rising faster than gold
Many people are surprised when they hear that palladium (Pd) is more valuable than gold. Gold may get all the attention from investors, but palladium is currently having an ever bigger bull market than gold thanks to the push to reduce vehicle emissions and the need for palladium in catalytic converters. Palladium is up a staggering 4.2 fold (a 320% gain) over the past 5 years, compared to gold which is up 1.8 fold (an 80% gain).
The good news for palladium is that the world continues to tighten emission standards which means more demand for palladium, and likely continued strong prices. Analysts agree that palladium will remain in supply deficit for at least 7 years. Junior miners who can successfully build up a resource of palladium can potentially do as well as those finding gold.
Palladium is up a staggering 4.2 fold (320%) in the last 5 years – Palladium US$2,185
Source: Trading Economics
One palladium junior miner of note has just struck good grades of palladium in Canada and is in the process of expanding their resource. Canadian Palladium Resources Inc. (CSE: BULL |FRANKFURT:DCR1 | OTCQB:DCNNF) is an exploration company focused on palladium. In 2019 Canadian Palladium acquired an option agreement to acquire a 100% interest in the 992 hectare East Bull Palladium Property in the Sudbury Mining Division in Ontario, Canada. The Project has good logistics and infrastructure from being in a very mining friendly location near Sudbury.
This week Canadian Palladium announced their latest drill results at their East Bull Palladium Property. The results include several high-grade palladium intersections with significant platinum (Pt), rhodium (Rh), gold (Au), and copper (Cu) with associated nickel (Ni) and cobalt (Co). The best drill holes were:
- Hole EB20-01 with 4.0 m at 8.15 g/t palladium equivalent (Pd-Eq).
- Hole EB20-03 with 3.0 m at 6.29 g/t Pd-Eq, as part of 15.0 m at 2.69 g/t Pd-Eq.
- Hole EB20-07 with 3.0 m at 7.47 Pd-Eq, as part of 24.0 m at 2.14 g/t Pd-Eq.
Back in June 2020, the Company reported:
- Hole EB – 20-12 with 2.68 g/t over 3 .0 metres and 2.28 g/t over 3.0 metres within a broader interval of 1.32 g/t over 20 metres.
The East Bull Palladium Project has a 43-101 compliant inferred resource estimate of 1.1m tonnes at a grade of 1.46g/t Pd Eq for a total of 523,000 ounces palladium (Pd) Equivalent (Eq), with significant upside potential.
43-101 compliant inferred resource estimate for the East Bull Palladium Project
Source: Company investor presentation
The Project has been drilled over a 1.8 km strike length to maximum depth of 120 m, however the mineralized zone is 3.6 km in length and open at depth. The latest drill results reinforce the company’s belief that there is significant exploration upside potential for the deposit.
“Canadian Palladium is pleased with the results from the initial holes in this program,” said company director Garry Clark, P.Geo. “These intersections report complete assay results that include palladium, platinum, rhodium, gold, copper, nickel and cobalt. High-grade palladium intersections are rare and these results have exceeded our grade expectations based on Canadian Palladium’s 2019 Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate of 523,000 oz Pd-Eq at a grade of 1.46 g/t Pd-Eq for East Bull. We look forward to releasing additional results on this exciting Project.”
Recent magnetotelluric (MT) survey results announced in July on the East Bull Palladium Project identified two new, shallow drill targets that are adjacent to the Valhalla Deposit palladium resource.
Canadian Palladium believes the East Bull PGM deposit has considerable resource expansion potential
Source: Company investor presentation
Canadian Palladium also has a second project called the Tisova Copper-Cobalt Project located on the Czech/German border and has recently sold their Turner Lake property in Canada for one million common shares in Pacific Cascade Minerals Inc. plus a 1% NSR royalty with a buyout value of C$1m.
Closing remarks
It is a great time to be exploring for and finding both palladium and gold as well as other associated valuable metals such as rhodium, platinum, cobalt, nickel, and copper. Canadian Palladium has all of these metals in one deposit at their East Bull Palladium Project.
With an already robust inferred resource, Canadian Palladium thinks they can continue to grow the resource with additional exploration. Given the Company trades on a market cap of just C$16.7m there is plenty of potential upside left for investors should they succeed.
Leave a Reply