Daniel Tuffin

Panther Metals commenced trading on the ASX today after raising $5 million through its initial public offering. Drilling at its flagship Coglia nickel laterite deposit is set to commence imminently with a 5,000m RC program aimed at following up some historical drill hits going 2.5 per cent nickel. The maiden drilling also aims to shore up the estimated 30-50 million tonne deposit grading at approximately 0.7 per cent nickel.

Panther Metals has wasted no time getting stuck into its maiden RC drill campaign targeting nickel sulphides at the company’s Coglia project in WA after listing on the ASX only last week. The planned 6,000 metre program will explore the deeper nickel sulphide potential at the Coglia nickel-cobalt project southeast of Laverton before shifting focus to its Eight Foot Well gold project nearby.

Nickel and gold explorer Panther Metals has ticked over the halfway mark in its maiden 6,000 metre drill campaign targeting nickel-cobalt mineralisation at the company’s flagship Coglia project just 70 kilometres east of Glencore’s Murrin Murrin processing plant within the Laverton region of WA. The first assays have been submitted, testing the prospectivity of the laterite hosted nickel-cobalt mineralisation.

Panther Metals has amassed high-grade nickel and cobalt zones in all drill holes assayed to date in a maiden program at the company’s flagship Coglia project just 70 kilometres east of Glencore’s Murrin Murrin mine about 880 kilometres east of Perth. Noteworthy results include 14 metres grading 1.17 per cent nickel from 49m downhole with an internal metre going 3.44 per cent nickel and 1,460 ppm cobalt.

Panther Metals has exceeded its JORC exploration target by an impressive 40 per cent with a maiden mineral resource estimate of 70.6Mt at 0.7 per cent nickel at its Coglia nickel-cobalt project in WA. The company’s resource estimate is well above the 50Mt upper limit of its former JORC exploration target and has room to grow from its base of 70.6Mt at 0.7 per cent nickel and 460ppm cobalt for 476,000t of nickel and 32,200t of cobalt contained.

Panther Metals has struck a series of bonanza, shallow gold hits from its Burtville East gold project near Laverton, WA, including 1m going 478 g/t gold from 28m, 1m grading 125 g/t from 34m and a further 1m at 79 g/t gold from 27m. The company says visible gold was also panned from another hole and follow-up work is now being planned.

Panther Metals has started follow-up drilling at Burtville East, near Laverton WA, as it looks to replicate its bonanza gold grades from its first six RC drill holes. The initial campaign returned spectacular results including 15m at 53.9 g/t gold and 1m intervals up to 478 g/t gold. The new drilling program aims to provide detailed geological information on the earlier bonanza-gold intercepts, test for strike extensions and the potential for further stacked lodes.

Panther Metals’ latest diamond drilling campaign has delivered new gold lodes and extended mineralisation at its Burtville East gold project it outside of Laverton in WA. One of the best results was a 14.6m strike at 2.23g/t gold from 37.4m. Another diamond drill core contained visible gold returns inside a 0.3m hit at 21.4g/t gold from 48.4 metres from outside the project’s existing mineralisation.

Panther Metals has been buoyed by initial testing results of samples from its Coglia nickel-cobalt project in the WA Goldfields that returned final nickel extraction levels of 92.6 per cent. The test work was based on a blended sample obtained from the company’s maiden drilling program. Panther says the high-pressure acid leach testing indicated the potential to further upgrade the nickel grade through beneficiation.