reef / magmatic sulphide
Palladium prospectivityacross Australia, the USA, Canada & worldwide.
Reef-type and magmatic sulphide palladium and platinum-group-element mineralisation, ranked and explained across Australia, the United States and Canada.
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✓ Australia
Ranked targets
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✓ United States
Ranked targets
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✓ Canada
Ranked targets
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Everywhere else
Global model
Ranked targets come with national models in Australia, the United States and Canada. Everywhere else, the global model returns the prospectivity map, the geology behind it and a confidence read. Next, the models are retrained on the full record and new sources, such as hyperspectral imagery, before we use them to rank and select ground.
How we rank palladium ground
From a country to a decision.
- 01 · Atlas
Know the ground
The geology, structure, recorded deposits, tenure and geochemistry over the ground, on one map with the source of every layer.
See Atlas - 02 · Open Ground
Find ground you can peg
Which ground is open, held or excluded, read from each licensing authority's own register.
See Open Ground - 03 · Prospectivity
Rank it for palladium
The ground scored for palladium, with the evidence behind it and ranked targets in Australia, the United States and Canada. Anywhere else, the global model maps palladium.
See Prospectivity - 04 · Spectral
Map the alteration
The alteration minerals and the structures that control them, from satellite: regional to district scale, and camp scale from WorldView-3.
See Spectral - 05 · Due Diligence
Check before committing
Tenure, land access, environment and the real cost to hold and test a palladium position.
See Due Diligence -
Talk to us about palladium
Partners, investors, publishers and researchers.
The deposit system
The palladium system.
Palladium is a rare, silvery-white platinum-group metal prized for its catalytic activity and its unusual capacity to absorb hydrogen. In nature it is overwhelmingly a product of mafic and ultramafic magmatism, occurring as palladium-bearing alloys, as sulphides such as braggite and vysotskite, and as bismuth-tellurides like merenskyite and kotulskite, commonly locked within base-metal sulphides including pentlandite, pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite.
Read more: the deposit model, why it matters and where it is used +
More on palladium
MineDSS models palladium and the wider platinum-group elements through the magmatic systems that concentrate them: reef-type horizons and magmatic sulphide accumulations in layered mafic–ultramafic intrusions. These processes leave a mappable footprint: differentiated intrusive rocks, sulphide-bearing zones, characteristic geophysical responses and a chalcophile geochemical halo. That is exactly the pattern a prospectivity model is built to read across large, partly covered terrains.
The deposit model
Both families are governed by magmatic sulphide processes rather than hydrothermal fluids. As a mafic–ultramafic magma cools and reaches sulphur saturation, an immiscible sulphide liquid separates and, like oil from water, scavenges chalcophile metals (nickel, copper, cobalt and the platinum-group elements) from a large volume of silicate melt before settling into distinct layers. Reef-type deposits concentrate palladium in thin, laterally extensive, sulphide-bearing horizons within layered intrusions, where the metal partitions into pentlandite and forms discrete platinum-group minerals. Contact and magmatic sulphide styles gather heavier sulphide accumulations toward intrusion margins and basal zones, where palladium is won alongside nickel and copper.
Why it matters
Palladium is a strategic industrial metal and appears on critical-minerals lists in several major economies, because its dominant use in vehicle emissions control ties it directly to both air-quality regulation and industrial competitiveness. Global mine supply is highly concentrated in a small number of countries and has run in persistent deficit for over a decade, drawing down above-ground stocks. Within North America it is produced at only a handful of operations, which sharpens government and industry interest in secure, diversified domestic supply. Because primary palladium is often recovered together with nickel, copper and the other platinum-group elements, and because the lead time from discovery to mine is long, transparent and defensible targeting of prospective ground carries real strategic weight for explorers and the governments that permit them.
Where it's used
The dominant use of palladium is in automotive catalytic converters, where it converts carbon monoxide, unburnt hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides from petrol engines into less harmful gases. Its exceptional ability to absorb hydrogen also makes it central to hydrogen purification and to emerging fuel-cell and clean-energy technologies. Beyond catalysis, palladium is widely used in electronics (in multilayer ceramic capacitors, plating and connectors) and as a catalyst in chemical and petroleum processing. Smaller but established roles include dentistry, jewellery and precious-metal investment. Together these applications, and palladium's limited substitutability in many of them, make secure and well-characterised supply a matter of both industrial and national interest.
Questions
Palladium: common questions.
Which palladium deposit types does MineDSS model? +
MineDSS models palladium and the wider platinum-group elements in mafic–ultramafic magmatic systems, covering two families: reef-type and magmatic sulphide deposits. Reef-type systems concentrate palladium in thin, laterally extensive, sulphide-bearing horizons within layered intrusions, where the metal is disseminated at modest sulphide contents but persistent grade. Magmatic sulphide and contact styles gather heavier base-metal sulphide accumulations toward intrusion margins and basal zones, where palladium is recovered alongside nickel and copper. Both are governed by an immiscible sulphide liquid separating from cooling magma, which is the footprint the model is built to read. Unrelated deposit styles are not represented; ground is ranked by how closely its evidence matches ground where samples assay anomalously high for the target mineral.
How is the model tested, and where can I run palladium? +
Every MineDSS model is tested before it is served: we withhold whole blocks of ground, rebuild the model without them, and check that it still ranks the anomalous samples there above background, with test ground kept spatially separate. A model that does not pass our release gates is not used, for any mineral, in any country. National models for palladium run in Australia, the United States and Canada, with ranked targets. Anywhere else in the world, the global model returns the prospectivity map, the geology behind it and a confidence read. Skill is model-level, never a specific site's measured accuracy, and never a discovery or JORC / NI 43-101 resource claim.
Which pathfinder elements track palladium? +
The classic pathfinders are nickel, copper, gold, cobalt, tellurium, selenium and chromium, with nickel, copper and gold leading. Because palladium concentrates with an immiscible sulphide liquid, these are the elements that travel with it: nickel, copper and cobalt build the base-metal sulphides that host the ore; tellurium and selenium form the bismuth-tellurides and selenides in which palladium commonly resides; chromium marks the ultramafic, chromite-bearing rocks of fertile intrusions; and gold tracks the associated precious-metal enrichment. These elements are part of the geochemical record our models learn from. In a run on any piece of ground, the map itself is read from geology and rock age, gravity and magnetics, radiometrics, terrain, satellite radar and spectral alteration, so it covers ground that has never been sampled.
Does a high MineDSS score mean a deposit or a resource estimate? +
No. A high score means its evidence closely matches ground where samples assay anomalously high for the target mineral, and it merits closer exploration attention. It is not a discovery, not a JORC or NI 43-101 resource or reserve estimate, and not drilling or investment advice. MineDSS ranks prospectivity to help prioritise where to look; confirming whether palladium and the other platinum-group elements are present, and in what quantity and grade, still requires field programmes, drilling and independent assessment by qualified professionals.
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Partners
Exploration and mining companies interested in working with us.
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Investors
The record, the models and the ground they point to.
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Publishers and researchers
Geological surveys, universities and programmes whose work the record is built on.
MineDSS ranks prospectivity to help you decide where to explore next. It is not a discovery, not a JORC or NI 43-101 resource or reserve estimate, and not drilling or investment advice.