Panther Metals looks set to be a roaring success after coming in 20m tonnes heavier than its exploration target at Coglia, WA. Pic via Getty Images.
Mining
Panther Metals has gone above and beyond initial expectations for the Coglia nickel-cobalt project’s maiden mineral resource, which has come in 20 million tonnes above the upper limit of the pre-existing JORC exploration target.
Panther Metals (ASX:PNT) has not only delivered a much bigger-than-expected maiden mineral resource (MRE) for its Coglia nickel-cobalt project in Western Australia, but it has done even better than its promised IPO schedule, bringing it in before the “second half of 2022” target laid out in the IPO.
The maiden MRE has come in 40% larger at 70.6Mt at grades of 0.7% nickel and 460 parts per million (ppm) cobalt for 476,000t of nickel and 32,200t of cobalt.
This is well above the tonnage range of 30-50Mt contained in the JORC exploration target (JET) the company initially outlined with the grades on target, falling within the 0.6-0.8% nickel and 400-600ppm cobalt ranges expected.
Managing director Daniel Tuffin says the resulting MRE was an “outstanding and transformative” outcome for Panther.
“This 70.6Mt, ~5km long nickel-cobalt resource far surpasses the results expected when compared to the former JET and marks Coglia as a new standalone nickel-cobalt project in the Laverton region of WA,” he says.
A big plus for Panther is the fact that in defining the maiden MRE, the company also highlighted two distinct domains separated by a fault.
This has allowed Panther to define a new Southern JET containing 34-62 million tonnes at 0.40-0.65% nickel for 136,000-400,000 tonnes of nickel and 400-600ppm cobalt for 14,000-37,000 tonnes of cobalt over a total area of ~2.7km2 and strike length of ~2.8km.
A further two drill targets, known as East and Central, spanning ~3.7km2, have also been identified through drilling and a review of the geophysics.
“These new targets, in addition to the MRE, have vastly increased the potential scale of the Coglia Project,” Tuffin says.
“The company will now commence a review to plan further drilling to infill the South Coglia domain and test the new Southern JORC, East and Central targets.”
The Coglia nickel-cobalt project covers the eastern side of a significant greenstone belt up to 10km wide at some points.
The project is also strategically located 70km east by road from Glencore’s hungry nickel and cobalt plant, which provides a potential processing option for Panther.
Panther only listed in December 2021 and hit the ground running, immediately starting drilling post listing with the goal of quickly delivering a resource at Coglia. Looks like they’ve delivered.
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.
