Column: Electric dreams turn into a nightmare for battery metals
A sector that was once racing to build new supply has been closing mines and deferring projects as low prices bite into the cost curve.
Stillwater Critical Minerals (TSXV: PGE; US-OTC: PGEZF) is “rewriting the book” on the Lower Stillwater Igneous Complex in Montana, says president and CEO, Michael Rowley.
The company’s evaluation of the flagship Stillwater West project continues to confirm more parallels to South Africa’s Bushveld Igneous Complex, and positions the company as the second-largest landholder in the Stillwater Complex, with a 100%-owned position next to Sibanye-Stillwater’s (JSE: SSW; NYSE: SBSW) PGE mines in south-central Montana.
“Given global geopolitical tension on several fronts, the world is increasingly looking towards North America and other first-world jurisdictions to supply the critical minerals such as PGMs, nickel, cobalt, copper and gold the modern economy requires,” Rowley said in an interview with The Northern Miner.
“With Stillwater West, we’re at a remarkable sweet spot. It’s got a lot of data, a supportive U.S. Geological Survey backing, but it’s, remarkably, not well understood,” Rowley said. “We’re rewriting the book on the Lower Stillwater Complex, quite literally. And there’s a lot of potential there. It’s a big and well-mineralized system.”
Since acquiring the project in 2017, Stillwater Critical, then known as Group 10 Metals, has focused on the potential for Stillwater West to host large-scale Platreef-style nickel and copper sulphide deposits, enriched in palladium, platinum, rhodium, gold and cobalt.
The company’s work to date has confirmed Stillwater West’s location in the Stillwater Igneous Complex relative to Sibanye-Stillwater’s productive J-M Reef deposits as comparable to Ivanhoe Mines’ (TSX: IVN; US-OTC: IVPAF) Platreef deposit and Anglo American’s (LSE: AAL) PGE-nickel-copper Mogalakwena mine in a similar geologic setting in the U.S.
Stillwater’s most important milestone yet was the release in October 2021 of an initial inferred resource estimate encompassing five Platreef-style deposits totalling 1.1 billion lb. of nickel, copper and cobalt, and 2.4 million ounces of palladium, platinum, rhodium and gold. The constrained model totals 157 million inferred tonnes averaging 0.45% total nickel-equivalent (or 1.2 grams palladium-equivalent per tonne), using a 0.2% nickel-equivalent cut-off.
Since then, Stillwater Critical has reported several wide, high-grade battery and precious metal intercepts in wide step-outs from known mineralization in expansion drilling.
