Panther Metals has its targets in sight as it pursues early cashflow

Panther Metals has been busy rapidly advancing its portfolio of highly prospective battery metals and gold projects in Western Australia’s Tier 1 mining district of Laverton.

In just 18 months since becoming an ASX-listed explorer, Panther Metals (ASX:PNT) has ticked a lot of boxes and it isn’t done yet, with plenty more in store and another busy six months ahead.

While many explorers come to the ASX long before they’re even remotely close to drilling, Panther was ready to spin the drill bit from the minute it lit up the boards, having mapped out an aggressive two-year exploration program.

This has culminated in the delivery of a significant and bigger-than-expected maiden 70.6Mt nickel-cobalt resource, high nickel recoveries of over 92%, and a new 32-64Mt southern exploration target at the flagship Coglia project, a potential new gold and nickel district at 40 Mile, and multiple ‘bonanza’ grade intercepts at Burtville East.

Panther has established a strong foothold within trucking distance of Glencore’s Murrin Murrin nickel-cobalt plant and surrounded by several gold mills running under capacity and desperate for more ore.

The company is currently undertaking a large 5,000m targeted extension drilling campaign at Coglia to boost the existing large nickel-cobalt resource and demonstrate the scale potential of the project.

The 5.5km long resource is already one of Western Australia’s top 10 largest JORC-2012 compliant nickel deposits not owned by a major.

Multiple previously identified but untested walk-up drill targets at Coglia provide the exploration blue sky to support a substantial increase to the existing resource.

This current program includes drilling to convert the Southern JORC exploration target of 32-64Mt of nickel (0.40 to 0.65%) and cobalt (400 to 600 ppm) into a resource.

In April, Panther bolstered its balance sheet by $3m following a strongly subscribed capital raising, leaving it well funded to pursue its “Big Four” exploration plan.

Also high on the agenda is further processing tests at Coglia. While recent HPAL testing demonstrated a final nickel extraction of 92.6% and a cobalt extraction of 73.9%, without any beneficiation, Panther is also looking into the potential of other methods, such as heap leaching.

One of Panther’s neighbours, Alliance Nickel (ASX:AXN), has completed extensive metallurgical test work on its nickel laterite ore with success, and Glencore has also successfully trialled commercial heap leaching at its Murrin Murrin plant.

A maiden drilling campaign is scheduled to begin at Panther’s 40 Mile Camp nickel-gold prospect upon completion of the Coglia drilling, with the site prepped to go.

Completion of the recent heritage agreement has cleared the way to explore the two untested 5km x 2.5km nickel-gold anomalies. The sheer size of the area could mean the establishment of a new gold-nickel district in the Laverton gold fields should Panther’s drilling prove successful.

Finally, if that wasn’t enough drill bits spinning, Panther plans to drill the nickel targets at its Red Flag project, where it aims to unlock the potential nickel sulphides on 5km of strike with known nickel mineralisation right next to the historic Poseidon mining camp.

This story was developed in collaboration with Panther Metals, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This story does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.

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