Panthera reports 'extensive' data acquisition on Labola Project

West Africa and India-focussed gold exploration and development company Panthera Resources announced on Friday that its associated company Moydow has secured all the previous drilling, geological, geochemical and geophysical data on the Labola Project, collected by High River Gold Mines (HRG), later acquired by Nordgold.

The AIM-traded firm said the Labola gold exploration project is located in the Banfora greenstone belt in the south west of Burkina Faso, about 370 kilometres west-southwest of the capital city Ouagadougou and 100 kilometres northeast of the Wahgnion gold mine.

It said data obtained included 40,518 metres of drill logs and assay results from 282 rotary air blase, reverse circulation and diamond drill holes, with 784 rock chip and 3316 soil sample assays.

The data also included 495 square kilometres of regional geophysics, being magnetic and radiometric, country-scale data, 260 square kilometres of detailed airborne geophysics, being magnetics, radiometric and time-domain electromagnetic.

It also included 25 square kilometres of ground geophysics, being gradient-array IP, as well as 165 square kilometres of geological and regolith mapping, 50 square kilometres of high-definition orthophoto and 150 square kilometres of lidar topographic survey, and first-pass metallurgical testwork.

The board said the data would “greatly assist” the programme required to estimate a maiden mineral resource at Labola, with multiple additional targets said to be apparent in the geophysical and geochemical data.

Preliminary and limited metallurgical testwork results suggested that the material would be amenable to gravity and conventional CIL extraction.

The company said the acquisition of the HRG data complemented the previous data and core, which included 25,008 metres of reverse circulation and diamond drilling in some 147 drill holes.

It noted that the data acquired by Moydow was “substantial”, and would take some time to process and evaluate.

“The Labola project is currently Moydow's most advanced project with some 65,000 metres of historical drilling,” said managing director Mark Bolton.

“Obtaining this additional information will greatly assist the programme required to estimate a maiden mineral resource once data verification has been completed.

“Securing the combined drilling, geological, geochemical and geophysical data for the first time, with an estimated replacement value of over $10m, is a major step forward to the ultimate development of Labola.”

Bolton said the “extensive” database required “comprehensive” interpretation before significant further investment in the field, particularly the many additional targets which could expand the resource potential at Labola.

“The preliminary metallurgical testwork results are very encouraging and suggest that the mineralisation is likely to be amenable to gravity and CIL in both the oxide and sulphide circuits with further testwork required to corroborate these results.”

At 1159 GMT, shares in Panthera Resources were up 2.79% at 22.1p.