Perth-based BBX Minerals (ASX: BBX) says the latest drill core assayed from the Três Estados project in the Brazilian state of Amazonas shows almost continuous platinum mineralisation over the entire length of the hole.

In addition, the company also reports that it has intersected a zone of continuous iridium mineralisation from 40m down hole to the end of the hole at 55.02m, with mineralisation remaining open at depth.

This latest hole (TED-003) from the 2021-2021 drilling program at the Tabocal prospect was assayed for gold, platinum, palladium, iridium and rhodium.

Hole TED-003 returned five mineralised zones, all hosting 5E (five element) platinum group metals (PGM) including platinum, palladium, iridium, rhodium and gold.

The first zone intersected mineralisation 9m from surface and assayed at 1.3 grams per tonne 5E PGM (platinum only). This was followed by 17m at 1.32g/t 5E PGM (0.04g/t gold, 1.23g/t platinum, 0.02g/t iridium and 0.03g/t rhodium) from 15m.

The third interval was 2m wide at 1.39g/t platinum only from 36m, followed by 1.5m at 1.77g/t 5E PGM (1.24g/t platinum and 0.53g/t iridium) from 44m, then finally 6.02m at 0.93g/t 5E PGM (0.3g/t platinum and 0.63g/t iridium) from 49m.

Drilling in a region ‘vastly’ underexplored

BBX’s key assets are the Três Estados and Ema gold projects in the Apuí region of Brazil.

Três Estados is located 60km south of Apuí, a town of 22,000 people.

Apuí achieved brief fame in 2006 when a Brazilian maths teacher reported seeing miners scooping up handfuls of gold there, which triggered a rush by thousands of people to the Amazon town.

BBX has previously stated that the Apuí region has good infrastructure — it has direct access to the Trans-Amazonian Highway and a port on the Amazon River along with an airport — but remains “vastly underexplored”.

Previous artisanal mining at Três Estados

The Três Estados project, which began as essentially a gold operation, covers 8,172 hectares, with the principal magnetic feature and geochemical anomaly being about 1km wide and about 4km in length.

The area has been the subject of shallow artisanal mining.

BBX has been working with the Sao Paula state research institute to develop an in-house extraction technology, as the complex type of mineralisation requires non-traditional extraction methods.