Pantera’s Yampi drilling uncovers unexpected signs of porphyry mineralisation

Pantera’s diamond drilling at the Yampi iron ore project in WA has yielded an unexpected prize, the intersection of pathfinder elements for porphyry copper-gold mineralisation.

Anomalous levels of gold (up to 32 parts per billion), molybdenum (3.34 parts per million), antimony (28.3ppm), arsenic and bismuth within hematite alteration from the 2021 drilling indicates the presence of a large hydrothermal alteration system.

Pantera Minerals’ (ASX:PFE) geophysical modelling of existing magnetics data within E 04/2660 has also confirmed the presence of a large intrusive magnetic body.

“While the iron grades encountered were lower than expected the excitement for Yampi now centres around the large intrusive magnetic body and the encountering of known pathfinder elements for porphyry copper-gold mineralisation,” chief executive officer Matt Hansen said.

“Yampi continues to remain a focus project, shareholders should continue to be excited by the potential this project holds and be encouraged by results released by our neighbours, Dreadnought Resources, who have continued to develop their Orion Copper project, hosted within structures that extent into Pantera tenements.”

Drill results

The three-hole diamond drilling program was originally to test the E 04/2660 licence’s potential to host an economic hematite deposit.

However, the maximum iron results of 3.25m at 29.25% from surface and remaining iron grading between 10% and 20% were lower than expected, reducing the likelihood the licence hosts a commercial hematite find.

Pantera will instead re-assess the large amount of outcropping hematite alteration across the licence as a potential vector towards locating possible porphyry copper-gold mineralisation.

Upcoming work

The company plans to focus its 2022 exploration activity on determining the source of the anomalous geochemistry in the 2021 diamond drill hole.

It will start 5824 line km of aeromagnetic and radiometric surveying covering the majority of the Yampi Project tenements in early May as well as a close-spaced ground gravity survey over the magnetic intrusive body.

Data from these surveys will be used to develop a detailed 3D model of the intrusive magnetic body.

Pantera will also carry out magnetic and rock chip sampling over the areas of structural complexity where the intrusive magnetic body may come to surface as well as stream and soil sampling over the entire tenement with a focus on gold and base metals.

This article was developed in collaboration with Pantera Minerals, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

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