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(Sharecast News) - Future Metals announced on Tuesday that a new drill programme was set to start "imminently" at its wholly-owned Panton platinum group metals-nickel project in the northern parts of Western Australia.
The AIM-traded firm said a diamond drill rig had arrived on site, and initial targets were identified from historical drilling and a ground based electromagnetic survey.
It said it had completed a "detailed" archaeological and ethnographic heritage survey over areas requiring new access tracks and pads, and obtained clearance from the traditional owners of the lands where Panton is situated - the Malarngowem people.
Several targets were generated from both the initial ground-based electromagnetic surveys, and historical drilling where high-grade base metals and sulphur had been intercepted previously.
Initial pad clearing had been completed in anticipation of the drill rig's arrival.
An electromagnetic survey was now progressing across the entire lower zone, to identify any strong conductors across the basal contact and in the Keel zone.
Data acquired from the gravity survey completed at the end of September was being modelled in combination with the existing aeromagnetic data to produce a 3D model, and assist with structural interpretations at depth.
That work would inform the company's understanding of the sub-surface architecture at Panton, the board explained, aiding in generating additional drill targets.
Drilling was expected to run until late December, weather permitting.
"There has been a tremendous effort by the team to pull together this latest exploration programme following the completion of our detailed exploration review which highlighted Panton's prospectivity for making a Ni-Cu-PGE sulphide discovery," said managing director and chief executive officer Jardee Kininmonth.
"A number of high quality targets have already been generated from the review of historical data and the ground electromagnetic survey currently underway, with the diamond drill rig set to start testing these in the coming days.
"Additional targets are expected over the coming weeks on the back of the EM survey team covering the entire basal contact and the Keel zone, as well as from the completion of the gravity and magnetics modelling."
At 14117 BST, shares in Future Metals were down 2.1% at 7p.
Reporting by Josh White at Sharecast.com.
