Podium Minerals’ non-executive chairman and major shareholder, Clayton Dodd has stepped up into the executive chair role in a move that is part of a plan to cut corporate overheads by $300,000 per annum whilst continuing to leverage the expertise of the existing management team. Podium’s CEO, Tom Stynes will step down from that role but will continue to manage the company operations and Grant ‘Rocky’ Osborne has resigned as a director in support of the cuts.
Clayton Dodd is a major shareholder of Podium with 11.9 per cent of the company and as such, he has a major vested interest in bringing Podium’s million-ounce PGM deposit at the Parks Reef project near Cue into production.
The company said that outgoing CEO, Tom Stynes, who is a Mechanical Engineer with a Masters in Mineral Economics, will remain an employee and his mechanical engineering skills and mine development planning experience will form a central part of his ongoing role at Podium. Podium will also retain Grant Osborne’s skill set via an ad-hoc consulting role. Podium’s board will also take a 40 per cent cut in fees as a part of the cost reduction measures.
Podium’s Parks Reef project received a major resource upgrade of 54 per cent earlier. The deposit includes platinum group metals and it also boasts some copper and nickel credits. The upgrade in the inferred mineral resource has delivered 1.14m oz of contained platinum, palladium plus gold and the copper credits now stand at 37,300 tonnes of contained copper.
With rhodium and platinum touching record prices recently, Podium also revealed a swathe of notable rhodium assays at Parks Reef which is great timing as demand for the rare metal is likely to soar ahead of its increasing use as a catalyst in automotive catalytic converters, a vehicle part that cleans up exhaust fumes.
The company is now looking at rhodium as a potential “credit” metal, with re-assay results from seven drill holes averaging about 3% to 4% rhodium within the platinum, palladium plus gold zones across the entire Parks Reef deposit, with a higher 5% to 7% rhodium in the footwall horizon.
Management said there is a clear pathway now to production for its Parks Reef project with critical test work underway via a jointly funded, Federal Government-supported, Innovation Connections program. A further cash rebate of $110,781 was received under the Government’s research and development tax incentive scheme.
Podium said it is planning to continue drilling along the 15km strike at Parks Reef and will continue with metallurgical test work and process design to deliver a project development plan. It will also assess new funding opportunities to advance the current work programs.
Podium’s new Executive Chairman, Clayton Dodd said: “Tom led the Company through its ASX listing and has successfully delivered the Company’s work programmes since this time with the Company’s Mineral Resources currently standing at 1.14 million ounces of platinum, palladium and gold plus 33,700 tonnes of copper.”
“Since joining the Company in 2017, Rocky has provided invaluable insights to the Board regarding the potential of the Company’s assets and strategies for unlocking their value. We are fortunate that we can leverage the expertise of both Tom and Rocky under this management restructure as we look to further advance Parks Reef and define a pathway to production for the project.”
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