REG - Panthera Resources - Operations Update

Panthera ResourcesAnnouncement

02/05/2023 07:00

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RNS Number : 0258Y  Panthera Resources PLC  02 May 2023

2 May 2023

 

Panthera Resources Plc

("Panthera" or "the Company")

 

Operations Update

 

Gold exploration and development company Panthera Resources Plc (AIM: PAT),
with assets in West Africa and India, is pleased to provide an update on its
exploration and development projects.

 

A PDF version of the announcement, inclusive of images, can be found on the
Company's website or by following the link below:

 

http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/0258Y_1-2023-5-2.pdf
(http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/0258Y_1-2023-5-2.pdf)

pantheraresources.com/news/regulatory-news/
(https://pantheraresources.com/news/regulatory-news/)

 

Cascades Project (Burkina Faso)

 

The Company advise that its joint venture partner DFR Gold Inc ("DFR") has
completed phase one of a 10,000 metre drilling program (the "Drilling
Program") on the Cascades Project in Burkina Faso, West Africa.  DFR has
advised that it expects full analytical results to be returned during the
first half of May 2023.

 

The Drilling Programme is designed in two phases. The first phase of 5,637
metres in 55 drill holes has been completed targeting extensions to the
current resources and several new targets:

•          Two newly defined targets immediately north and
southwest of the Daramandougou resource pit shell respectively;

•          Step-out drilling on the TT13 target, a significant new
gold zone identified during 2022 (Far East); and

•          First-pass drilling on several other newly delineated
targets in the Wuo Land 2 licence area.

 

The second phase of the Drilling Programme will be a results-driven follow-on
program targeting the highest priority results from the first phase.

 

Previously, in 2021, DFR prepared a maiden mineral resource estimate on the
property in accordance with the provisions of the Canadian National Instrument
43-101 - "Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects" ("NI 43-101") (see RNS
dated 25 October 2021):

 

Indicated mineral resource estimate:     5.41Mt @ 1.52g/t Au (264,000oz)

Inferred mineral resource estimate:       6.93Mt @ 1.67g/t Au
(371,000oz)

 

Details of the first phase of the Drilling Program

 

The first phase of the Drilling Program is summarised in Table 1 below.

 

 Target Area                                        Target description                                                               Number of Holes    Metres    Holes Drilled    Metres Drilled
 Dara North                                         Chargeability/resistivity anomaly; artisinal workings; proximity to resource;   8                  640       8                809
                                                    further along strike potential to north
 Western Zone Extn (incl 2 x isolated NPG targets)  Chargeability/resistivity anomaly; no artisinal workings; extension of          10                 1,440     13               1,398
                                                    resource structure
 TT13 Step-Out                                      Tested by first pass drilling; aim to demonstrate contiunity over 500 strike    9                  720       10               868
                                                    length; could bring resource into Infered category
 TT13-West                                          Newly opened artisinal zone 800 metres west of TT13 discovery; already 500      6                  600       5                546
                                                    metres long but along strike potential to north could be skinny
 Sina Yar                                           Intensive artisinal workings; broad area of shallow pits but drilling focus on  8                  640       10               903
                                                    line/s deeper pits into bedrock; geochemical anomaly
 Far East-N                                         Artisinal workings; support from rock grab samples; geophysics ambiguous        5                  400       5                501
 Far East-S                                         Artisinal workings; support from rock grab samples; geophysics ambiguous        7                  560       7                612
 TOTAL                                                                                                                              55                 5,000     56               5,637

 

Table 1

 

About Cascades

 

The Cascades project (formerly called Labola) is owned and managed by Moydow
Holdings Ltd (Moydow). Panthera currently holds an equity interest of 20% in
Moydow with DFR earning an 80% interest and is the operator. DFR has agreed to
spend up to US$18 million (Earn-In) on Cascades and increase its ownership
interest up to 80% in Moydow.  Upon completion of the Earn-In, Panthera holds
the right to increase its interest by 10%, for example, from 20% to 30%, for a
cost of US$7.2 million.

 

The Cascades gold exploration project is in the Banfora greenstone belt of the
West African Birimian Supergroup in southwest Burkina Faso. Cascades is
approximately 450km west-southwest of the capital, Ouagadougou, and 100km
northeast of the Wahgnion gold mine, operated by Endeavour Mining.

 

More than 65,500m of historical drilling (541 holes) has been completed across
multiple drilling campaigns by previous owners, High River Gold Mines Limited
("HRG"), later acquired by Nord Gold Plc, and Taurus Gold Limited ("Taurus"),
consisting of principally diamond and RC drilling (24,589m/39,339m,
respectively).  Mineralisation has been intercepted by historical drilling
and outlined by previous artisanal mining in three main zones over a 10 km
strike length.

 

Moydow has explored the area since August 2020, including acquisition and
compilation of all previous data into a single database, interpretation of
this data, target generation using the database and all the acquired remote
sensing information, and a Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling program involving
31 holes. This culminated in the announcement of the maiden mineral resource
estimate in 2021.

 

Bido Project (Burkina Faso)

 

Panthera is pleased to advise that its 2023 field programme has commenced with
a geophysical programme of IP gradient array (for a total of 82 km lines) and
IP pole-dipole array lines (6.4 km). The work is focusing on three prospects
on the Kwademen Zone (Kwademen, Kwademen-East and Kwademen-South).

 

The Company has also acquired analog historical data from the archives of the
library of the Ministry of Mines in Ouagadougouand has commenced converting
the database to a digital format to intergrate with the Company's data.  The
historical works performed on the Kwademen area included mapping, trenching,
soil sampling, drilling, and geophysics (EM). The results of these programs
have highlighted the presence of gold and base metals occurrences.

 

Kalaka Project (Mali)

 

Kalaka is a joint venture which the Company and DFR are directly interested in
through a joint 50:50 ownership interest in Maniger Ltd, a British Virgin
Islands holding company. Kalaka is operated by the Company. Panthera and DFR
both respectively hold 40% indirect interests in Kalaka with a local Mali
company owning the balancing 20%.

 

The Company has recently completed a research study where diamond drill core
samples from the K1A prospect were selected for a mineralisation
characterisation study including petrographic, X-Ray diffraction analysis
(XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) techniques. As a follow up from
the research, a selection of the diamond drill core samples (from stored and
prepared sample pulps stored at Panthera's field project camp) have been
submitted to a commercial laboratory for a multielement analysis using an
Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) method.

 

Anglogold Ltd ("AGL") and Golden Spear Mali SARL ("GSM") drilled 12 diamond
core holes and 17 reverse circulation drill holes over the target area, many
intersecting economic grade mineralisation. Over 25% of the samples collected
from the drilling programmes have returned results greater than 1.0 g/t Au.
While not sufficient to declare a Mineral Resource, information available
provides preliminary data for range analysis. GSM commissioned a resource
study by Wilson, 2011 the results of which suggested an endowment of 250k to
500k ounces. Golder's stated in their report (Panthera Admission Document
2017) that "whilst not a JORC compliant resource, this figure represents an
initial exploration target for the Project.

 

Bassala Project (Mali)

 

Panthera is the operator of the Bassala project and is aiming to earn an 80%
interest in Bassala. Presently Bassala is owned by the Malian company Golden
Spear Mali SARL.

 

Recent field work at Bassala has identified the location of new artisanal gold
diggings that highlight several zones of potential mineralisation that had not
previously been drill tested by the Company. The Company intends to complete
geological mapping and sampling of these new zones ahead of planning for
further drilling.

 

Bhukia (India)

 

On 28 February 2023, the Company announced that Indo Gold Pty Ltd ("IGPL"),
had executed a conditional arbitration funding agreement (the "AFA") for up to
US$10.5 million in litigation financing with LCM Funding SG Pty Ltd ("LCM
Funding" or the "Funder").  LCM Funding is a subsidiary of Litigation Capital
Management Limited ("LCM"), a firm quoted on the AIM Market of the London
Stock Exchange. LCM is a leading global litigation financier with significant
expertise in international arbitration and cross-border dsputes, including
bilateral investment treaty claims over mineral resource assets.

 

Amongst other conditions precedent, LCM Funding has two months from the date
of entering into the AFA to complete its detailed due diligence in relation to
the Claim (the "LCM Funding Due Diligence"). Following successful completion
of the LCM Funding Due Diligence, the parties can move to complete a Funding
Confirmation Notice.

 

The Company advises that it has agreed to a further one month extension to end
of May 2023 for LCM to complete its detailed due diligence in relation to the
Claim. There can be no assurance that LCM's due diligence will be completed to
LCM's satisfaction.

 

In addition to pursuing a potential claim against the Republic of India for
breaches of its obligations under the Australia-India Bilateral Investment
Treaty, the Company continues to pursue an amicable resolution of the dispute
and the grant of the Bhukia Prospecting Licence.  In this regard, the Company
is in advanced discussions with a potential joint venture partner.

 

 

Contacts

 

Panthera Resources PLC

Mark Bolton (Managing
Director)
+61 411 220 942

 
contact@pantheraresources.com

 

Allenby Capital Limited (Nominated Adviser & Joint
Broker)             +44 (0) 20 3328 5656

John Depasquale / Vivek Bhardwaj (Corporate Finance)

Kelly Gardiner / Stefano Aquilino (Sales & Corporate Broking)

 

Novum Securities Limited (Joint
Broker)
+44 (0) 20 7399 9400

Colin
Rowbury

 

Financial Public Relations

Vigo Consulting
Ltd
+44 (0)20 7390 0230

Oliver Clark / Chris McMahon

 

Subscribe for Regular Updates

 

Follow the Company on Twitter at @PantheraPLC
(https://twitter.com/PantheraPlc)

 

For more information and to subscribe to updates visit: pantheraresources.com
(http://pantheraresources.com)

 

Qualified Person

The technical information contained in this disclosure has been read and
approved by Ian S Cooper (BSc, ARSM, FAusIMM, FGS), who is a qualified
geologist and acts as the Qualified Person under the AIM Rules - Note for
Mining and Oil & Gas Companies.  Mr Cooper is a geological consultant to
Panthera Resources PLC.

 

UK Market Abuse Regulation (UK MAR) Disclosure

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to
constitute inside information for the purposes of Regulation 11 of the Market
Abuse (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019/310. Upon the publication of this
announcement via a Regulatory Information Service ("RIS"), this inside
information is now considered to be in the public domain.

 

Forward-looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on the
Company's current expectations and estimates. Forward-looking statements are
frequently characterised by words such as "plan", "expect", "project",
"intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate", "suggest", "indicate" and other
similar words or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will"
occur. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks,
uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to
differ materially from estimated or anticipated events or results implied or
expressed in such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among
others: the actual results of current exploration activities; conclusions of
economic evaluations; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be
refined; possible variations in ore grade or recovery rates; accidents, labour
disputes and other risks of the mining industry; delays in obtaining
governmental approvals or financing; and fluctuations in metal prices. There
may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as
anticipated, estimated or intended. Any forward-looking statement speaks only
as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by
applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to
update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information,
future events or results or otherwise. Forward-looking statements are not
guarantees of future performance and accordingly, undue reliance should not be
put on such statements due to the inherent uncertainty therein.

 

**ENDS**

 

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