Panther Metals is continuing to keep its drill crew busy as it moves its RC rig from the 38 holes just drilled at the company’s Eight Foot Well gold prospect near Laverton in WA to the Merolia gold project some 60kms to the east where grab samples from the Burtville East target have yielded grades of up to 38.45 grams per tonne gold.
The company said it has concluded the 2500m infill and extensional RC drill program at Eight Foot Well and submitted the samples from Eight Foot’s 38 holes in one batch to the assay lab for testing. Once the results are received, Panther intends to quantify the primary gold source and potentially convert it into a maiden JORC compliant mineral resource.
The rig has two more weeks in the field before servicing which means the drilling at Burtville East that has been planned for months can now go ahead, with about six holes set to be drilled.
Panther is looking to extend the structure at depth and along strike and it will also drill and assay the previously untested altered mineralised zone outside the quartz mineralisation.
The company is picking up from previous work done at the Eight Foot lead by Homestake Australia in the mid-1990s, which consisted mainly of shallow rotary air blast and air-core drilling.
The company is hoping the results will clarify previous RC exploration that identified good geological continuity but failed to identify a substantial primary source of the previously recorded supergene mineralisation.
Panther Metals Managing Director, Daniel Tuffin said: "Completing the second drill program of our two-pronged commodity exploration approach since listing on December 10, 2021, is an outstanding achievement and one we are proud of”.
“Prior forward planning has meant we have been able to efficiently and continuously keep the drill bit spinning, reducing downtime between planned programs to a minimum.”
Tuffin said the company is enthusiastically looking forward to starting its third consecutive drill program since listing, exploring the wholly-owned Burtville East gold prospect, which contains a peak historic drill intercept of 5m at 23g/t gold, including 1m going 110g/t and the peak mineralised stockpile grab sample of 38.45g/t.
Burtville East is one of four gold prospects making up the Merolia gold project in the WA goldfields, containing a dominant land holding over ground Panther describes as some of the region's most prospective and under-explored, covering around 90 square kilometres.
The target holds a series of wide quartz reef outcrops and significant geochemical anomalies, along with mineralised stockpiles of historically rejected material ready for treatment.
Other notable intercepts include an 8m section at 6.7g/t gold, 2m going 6.7g/t gold and 4m at 5.1g/t gold.
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By Matt Birney
