The Merolia Gold Project is unveiling its treasure early on for Panther Metals, so it’s not surprising the explorer is keen to see what’s in store at its next high-grade gold target in Western Australia.

Panther Metals’ (ASX:PNT) Merolia project has already shown its potential to host high-grade gold, having returned a bonanza hit of 478 grams per tonne (g/t) from the Burtville East prospect less than a month ago.

And there’s a strong chance of finding more high-grade gold, with Panther now following up peak historic intercepts of up to 4m at 46.20g/t gold at the Ironstone Gold prospect.

“Having completed our initial stratigraphic drilling program at Burtville, the rig now moves to Ironstone for 1,200m of diamond drilling,” managing director Daniel Tuffin said.

He added: “We had all the permitting, planning and site preparation in place – in a market full of shortages and while we had possession of the diamond rig we took the opportunity to move it quickly to Ironstone.

“This program is planned to test and verify historic mineralisation and modelling for the Main Lode at Ironstone, which has a peak historic gold intercept of 9m at 22.27g/t gold (inc. 4m at 46.20g/t gold) from 112m in hole CWRC013.”

In 2002, AngloGold Ashanti (ASX:AGG) Australia drilled 19 reverse circulation (RC) holes and two diamond holes at Ironstone that were successful in delineating high-grade gold mineralisation including the peak intercept.

Fast forward to February 2016 and White Cliff Minerals (ASX:WCN) completed a five-hole RC program that confirmed the previous drilling and was followed by a soil sampling program that defined a soil anomaly extending over 240m by 180m.

The company then completed 20 aircore holes in late 2016, which identified multiple broad mineralised zones from shallow depths that remain open at depth and along strike.

Success at Ironstone will continue the momentum for Panther, which has ticked several boxes since making its ASX debut in December 2021.

Milestones included drilling intersecting “exceptional” high-grade nickel and cobalt zones at Panther’s Coglia project in WA, followed quickly by a “transformative” 70.6-million-tonne maiden resource for the project.

Just a couple of weeks later, Panther delivered the bonanza 1m at 478g/t gold hit at the Burtville East prospect.

Ironstone is one of four gold prospects at the Merolia project, which spans 90sqkm of some of the region’s most prospective and underexplored ground.

It is the right neighbourhood to be in, with Panther’s portfolio of projects located within a short distance of several major producers including Gold Fields, AngloGold Ashanti, Regis Resources (ASX:RRL), Glencore’s Murrin Murrin nickel project, and Dacian Gold (ASX:DCN).

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.