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PANTHER METALS PLC
(Incorporated in the Isle of Man with company number 009753V)
18 February 2020
Big Bear Gold Project Exploration Permit Applications & Unmanned Airborne Geophysics Survey Preparation
Panther Metals PLC (LSE:PALM) ("Panther" or "the Company"), the company focused on mineral exploration in Canada and Australia, is pleased to announce that applications for four exploration permits covering the Big Bear Gold Project ("Big Bear" or the "Project") in Canada, have been lodged. In addition, a geophysical contractor has visited the Project in order to plan the logistics for a drone based airborne magnetic geophysics survey of the Project.
Darren Hazelwood, CEO, commented:
"The exploration permitting applications for the Big Bear Gold Project in Ontario, Canada, have been lodged to allow Panther to refine and test prospective gold and base metal targets outlined by both Panther and in historical exploration work. Successful permitting will allow Panther to undertake an inaugural core drilling programme of up to 20 diamond drill holes as well as associated bedrock trenching.
We are also pleased to announce that a geophysical contractor visited site last week in order to plan the logistics for the drone-borne aerial magnetics survey we are scheduling to be flown in early Spring. We look forward to providing further details on this in due course."
Permitting Details
The four exploration permit applications respectively cover the north, south, east and west of the Project and supplement and append the existing exploration permit which is in place for the central part of the Project over the Schreiber Pyramid gold occurrence and gold occurrences in the vicinity of Bear Lake. An Activity Details Report has been filed with each application outlining the following planned work streams:
Work included in the exploration permit applications:
·; Ground induced polarisation ("IP") and resistivity geophysics over selected parts of the Big Bear property.
·; Soil geochemical sampling programme over existing areas of interest and wider target structures in the Project area.
·; Overburden stripping of areas containing geochemical or geophysical anomalies.
·; Bedrock trenching of targets outlined in the north, east and west application areas.
·; Diamond core drilling, with provisions for up to 20 holes, with up to 10 holes in the central and western part of the Project and up to 5 holes in each of the north and east permit applications.
·; Clearing of forest access trails and line cutting for the various workstreams.
·; The permit applications also make provision for tented camp sites associated with the drilling and trenching programmes and the storage of fuel.
The central part of the Project already has an exploration permit in place for the drilling and trenching of seven target areas coinciding with historical gold occurrences and more recent soil and rock chip sampling work.
The exploration permit applications will now go through a process of governmental, First Nation community and local landowner, stakeholder review with a decision due on or before the week commencing 5 April 2020. The planned ground work programmes will coincide with the snow melt and will follow on from a planned drone airborne magnetics survey which is being scheduled for late March.
Following the renewal of a number of existing Panther claims, the conversion of legacy boundary claims to full mining claims, following neighbouring claim holders relinquishing ground, and the registration of mining claims over the extension of prospective ground in the east of the property, the Big Bear Project currently encompasses a total area of 46km2.
Big Bear Gold Project Background
The Big Bear Gold Project covers an area of 46 km2 on the Schreiber-Hemlo Greenstone Belt located within 0.5 km of the town of Schreiber and 170 km southeast of the city of Thunder Bay. The Schreiber-Hemlo greenstone belt includes a number of known gold deposits including the current Barrick Gold's Hemlo Mine which has reportedly produced over 22 million ounces of gold to date from a combination of underground and open pit mining. Although the Hemlo mine is on the same greenstone belt as Big Bear, it cannot reasonably be quoted as an adjacent or neighbouring project on account of its distance and geological difference. It does, however, serve to illustrate a type of deposit that can be found within the greenstone belt that may represent a target for Panther. The Project is also approximately 15 km southeast of the past-producing Winston Lake zinc mine, one of Canada's highest grade zinc deposits.
The Archean rocks of the Schreiber-Hemlo Greenstone Belt are predominantly subaqueous mafic tholeiitic metavolcanic rocks which overlie a less voluminous, predominantly calc-alkaline sequence, both of which are interlayered with minor clastic and chemical metasedimentary rocks. Mineral deposits and occurrences within the belt, comprise precious metal (gold and silver) veins in fractures and shears in the mafic metavolcanic and granitic rocks; molybdenum-copper vein deposits associated with the border zones of the granitic batholiths; nickel-copper deposits associated with a gabbro intrusion; and polymetallic base metal copper-lead-zinc-silver occurrences associated with clastic and chemical interflow metasedimentary units.
Panther's work to date has focused on the verification of previous exploration results and historical data research and compilation. In 2018, Panther conducted soil geochemical sampling on five survey grids along with regional prospecting and outcrop sampling. The anomalous geochemical soil results which ranged up to 0.71 g/t Au, show a strong correlation with the Total Field Magnetic airborne geophysics and the interpreted lineaments/structures derived from the digital elevation model. Panther's outcrop sampling has confirmed high grade results, attributed to historical work areas, including a quartz vein sample from the Schreiber Pyramid mine yielding 105.5 g/t gold & 6.61 g/t silver.
For further information please contact:
Panther Metals PLC:
Darren Hazelwood, Chief Executive Officer: +44(0) 1462 429 743 and +44(0) 7971 957 685
Mitchell Smith, Chief Operating Officer: +1(604) 209 6678
Brokers:
SI Capital Limited
Nick Emerson +44(0) 1438 416 500
Peterhouse Capital Limited
Guy Miller and Duncan Vasey +44(0) 20 7469 0930