Gold exploration and development company Panthera Resources Plc (LON:PAT), with assets in West Africa and India, has announced the Labola assay results from the June 2022 drilling programme completed by Moydow. The Project has an Indicated Mineral Resource of 264,000oz @ 1.52g/t Au and an Inferred Mineral Resource of 371,000 oz @ 1.67 g/t Au. Going forward, the Labola project has been renamed the Cascades Gold Project.
Highlights
· The Cascades Gold Project comprises the contiguous Wuo Land and Wuo Land 2 licences for 243 square kilometres
· A maiden Mineral Resource estimate was announced in 2021 on Wuo Land
· Results from the recent drilling at the Cascades Gold Project have confirmed the presence of a significant new gold zone at the TT-13 target. Assay results include:
CS22-RC027 45-55m, 10m@ 1.55 g/t Au
CS22-RC028 25-29m, 4m@ 2.10 g/t Au
CS22-RC028 38-54m, 16m@ 1.26g/t Au
CS22-RC029 27-36m, 9m @ 1.08 g/t Au
CS22-RC029 56-66m, 10m@ 1.81g/t Au
· Infill drilling has added definition to the geological model with high-grade mineralisation intersecting in the Western Zone. Assay results including 3 metres @ 12.52g/t Au
· The geology team is continuing to upgrade more than twenty new targets for future drilling
· Environmental baseline studies have commenced, and a new CSR program launched including the drilling of the first community water well in the Project area
· Recent metallurgical test work confirms that the gold is free milling
Commenting on the announcement, Mark Bolton, Managing Director of Panthera Resources said:
“The discovery at TT13, just one of many untested drill targets at the Cascades Project, reinforces our confidence in being able to deliver a substantial gold resource here in due course.
The recent exploration campaign was professionally executed with the support of the local community and without incident.”
Cascades Project Drill Program
Following a 2021 drilling program in an area of historical drilling at the Daramandougou and Wuo Ne target areas within the Wuo Land licence area, a maiden Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) was published in October 2021 as stated in Table 1:
Table 1 Maiden Mineral Resource Estimate, October 2021
| Indicated Mineral Resource: | 5.41Mt @ 1.52g/t Au (264,000oz) |
| Inferred Mineral Resource: | 6.93Mt @ 1.67g/t Au (371,000oz) |
Between May and July 2022, a 4,975 metre Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling programme was completed. The programme incorporated infill resource definition and step-out drilling at the Daramandougou area and first-pass exploration drilling on two new previously untested targets in the newly acquired Wuo Land 2 concession (as announced on 11 March 2022), namely the TT-13 and the Big South targets. A breakdown of the drilling by area is given in Table 1.
Table 2 RC drilling programme, May-July 2022
| Target Area | No. Holes | Metres |
| Daramandougou | 21 | 2,545 |
| TT-13 | 9 | 1,068 |
| Big South | 13 | 1,362 |
| TOTAL | 43 | 4,975 |
All holes were sampled at one-metre intervals. Initially, composite samples have been generated for laboratory analysis for two-metre downhole intervals. In well-mineralised zones, the one-metre samples were assayed.
The TT-13 target was identified in a target generation exercise carried out in 2021. Significant mineralisation was intersected in the exploration drilling at TT-13 and follow-up resource delineation drilling will be recommended here.
Drilling at the Big South target tested a new, but already extensive, artisanal mining zone. Several of the 13 holes intersected a low-grade mineralised envelope coincident with the extent of the artisanal workings. The anticipated higher-grade zones will geological mapping and modelling before further drilling.
Infill and step-out drilling at the Daramandougou Target
Twenty-one holes were drilled at Daramandougou for an aggregate total of 2,454 metres. For the most part, the drilling did not intersect new high-grade zones and the drilling is not expected to add significant new resource ounces within the existing resource envelope. However, the data will help to strengthen our geological model here, and this will be important for resource classification. By way of example, hole CS22-RC003 tested a gap in drilling at the southern end of the Western Zone at Daramandougou more than 100 m in length, between hole DRA21-014 drilled by Moydow in 2021 and LBLC08-006 drilled by High River Gold in 2008. Intersections in CS22-RC003 included the following:
· CS22-RC003 40-60m, 20 metres @ 1.27g/t and
· CS22-RC003 64-68m, 4 metres @ 2.1g/t and
· CS22-RC003 94-96m, 2 metres @ 3.8g/t and
· CS22-RC003 102-114m, 12 metres @ 3.38g/t
The highest-grade mineralisation in these intersections was 104-107m, 3 metres @ 12.52g/t Au (from fire assays), which occurs in a zone of quartz veining where the host metasediment unit transitions from sandstone to greywacke dominated lithology. DRA21-014 was collared 60 metres to the north and had previously intersected a maximum grade of 2.18g/t (60-61 metres downhole). LBLC08-006 was collared 55 metres to the south and intersected the highest grade of 1.35g/t. Preliminary modelling of the new results suggests likely continuity with the mineralised zone intersected in DRA-21-014 therefore a significant southerly continuation of the western zone at improved grades.
Other potentially significant intersections from the drilling at Daramandougou include:
· CS22-RC002 3-13m, 10 metres @ 0.94 g/t Au
· CS22-RC004 36-54m, 18 metres @ 1.36g/t
· CS22-RC006 32-46m, 13 metres @ 1.31g/t
· CS22-RC007 75-88m, 13 metres @ 0.73g/t
· CS22-RC010 67-71m, 4 metres @ 1.53g/t
· CS22-RC013 32-53m, 21 metres @ 0.63g/t
· CS22-RC018 34-36m, 2 metres @ 3.03g/t
· CS22-RC021 20-29m, 9 metres @ 0.64g/t
Exploration drilling
Two new targets in the newly acquired Wuo Land 2 licence area, TT-13 and Big South, were tested in a first pass drilling programme with an aggregate of 22 holes. Target generation work during 2021 defined 22 exploration targets across the Wuo Land and Wuo Land 2 concessions. Most of these targets, including TT-13 and Big South, have had no previous drilling.
The TT-13 target is 6km south-southeast and 8km south-southeast of the Wuo Ne and Daramandougou zone where the bulk of mineral resources was delineated in December 2021. At TT-13 a total of 9 holes tested a northeast-southwest trending shear structure where a 2022 field mapping programme had delineated a structure over a strike length exceeding 1.8 kilometres. The zone is characterised by near continuous artisanal workings at the surface. The TT-13 structure has been mapped for a strike length of approximately 3,000 metres. It runs parallel and to the east of the Daramadougou/Wuo Ne structure. The sampling campaign during quarter 1 of this year confirmed ore-grade mineralisation in several artisanal workings with grades up to 25.4 g/t Au.
Three holes in particular intersected significant mineralisation in what appears to be a westerly dipping mineralisation envelope up to 20-35 metres wide. Notable intersections are listed below. The samples were initially assayed by Fire Assay (FA) and selected mineralised sections were also assayed using bottle roll LeachWELL (LW) analyses. Both the Fire Assay and Bottle Roll assays are quoted here, and it is noted that for each mineralised intercept the Bottle Roll assays returned a higher average grade than the Fire Assays.
· CS22-RC027 45-55m, [email protected] g/t LW (1.38 g/t FA)
· CS22-RC028 25-29m, [email protected] g/t LW (1.56 g/t FA)
· CS22-RC028 38-54m, [email protected]/t LW (1.2g/t FA)
· CS22-RC029 27-36m, 9m @1.08 g/t LW (0.93 g/t FA)
· CS22-RC029 56-66m, [email protected]/t LW (1.39g/t FA)
Drilling at the Big South target tested a new, but already very extensive, artisanal mining zone. The structure crosses the southern boundary of the Wuo Land licence and into the Wuo Land 2 licence area and may be an offset southerly continuation of the TT-13 structure. As with TT-13, a short mapping and sampling programme in 2022 confirmed high-grade mineralisation in zones characterised by quartz veining with associated pyrite. 13 holes tested a 3km strike length of this shear structure at wide spacing. Thus far, only two-metre composited samples have been assayed. Most of the holes in the northern half of the zone intersected some low-grade mineralisation within an envelope consistent with the area of the artisanal workings. The primary one-metre samples from the mineralised envelope will be sent for LW analysis during September.
While the extent and intensity of the artisanal workings here, supported by mapping and sampling, point to a potentially important large, mineralised zone at Big South, geological field mapping of the mineralised structure will be needed here before the next round of drilling is planned.
Drill Sample Procedures and Reporting
All drilling samples have been collected at one-metre intervals with some samples composited for assay, using a variety of assay techniques. Where results from more than one assay technique are available the quoted intervals are annotated with FA or LW indicating fire assay or LW respectively. When calculating drill hole intercepts, a cut-off of 0.3g/t has been used and an internal dilution of up to 3 metres is allowed.
Fire Assay analyses were carried out at SGS Burkina SA Laboratory, Ouagadougou. LW analyses was carried out at Biggs Global Burkina Sarl, Ouagadougou
Metallurgy
As part of the QA/QC programme from the drilling and sampling, 499 one-metre samples were re-assayed using the LW accelerated bottle roll technique. Additional fire assays were performed on each of the LW tails.
The average recovery of the bottle roll as a fraction of the bottle roll and tail fire assay for the 499 samples was 86.8%. Furthermore, when applying a cut-off grade of 0.3 g/t Au, the average recovery was 89.5% for 183 samples. These results reaffirm that the material is free milling.
Environmental Baseline Studies.
Moydow has commenced the process of acquiring new environmental data for the project area in combination with the collation of all available historical data. An Ouagadougou-based environmental consultancy group has been engaged to assist with the scoping of a baseline monitoring programme.
CSR
Moydow enjoys good relations with the local communities and stakeholders in the Cascades Project area. The policy is to use local service providers and exploration personnel wherever possible, supported by experienced exploration personnel from outside the community who can lead and train local people as necessary. The drilling programme was completed without any lost time injuries and no drilling downtime.
