LONDON: Panther Metals PLC is acquiring 100% of the Merolia Gold Project near Laverton, Western Australia, from White Cliff Minerals Limited (WCN), an ASX-listed exploration company.
Darren Hazelwood, Chief Executive Officer, commented: “Our proposed entry into the Western Australian goldfields, and specifically this highly prolific gold producing Archean Greenstone belt near Laverton represents a major step forward for the Company.
“The Project represents a post-discovery opportunity and our plans will now focus on building a resource in this area, which could ultimately be fed in to one of many processing plants in the vicinity. The Project also has the added advantage of year round access, is well-serviced by excellent infrastructure and a skilled work-force.
“The Project contains several gold prospects and substantial gold anomalous zones which have been tested with only limited drilling to date. Important previous shallow drilling intercepts on the prospects include 8m at 6.7 g/t Au and 5m at 27.8 g/t Au at Burtville East and 9m at 46.5 g/t Au and 24m at 8.6 g/t at Ironstone. In addition the 15km long Comet Well gold trend contains several 1.25 to 2.5km long gold mineralised zones which have yielded significant quantities of gold nuggets but remains undrilled to date.
“Panther Metals has spent a considerable amount of time seeking out exactly this type of project in Western Australia and I look forward to updating the market in due course as we enter a due diligence process.”
The Merolia Gold Project comprises a series of contiguous exploration licences (E38/2552, E28/2693, E38/2847) located from 35km to the southeast of, and one licence (E39/1585) located from 23km to the west of, the town of Laverton (population: 340) in the Eastern Goldfields Province of Western Australia.
The area around Laverton includes several major gold mines, including Granny Smith (3 Moz), Sunrise Dam (8 Moz) and Wallaby (8 Moz), and many significant gold deposits. It is one of the most prolific gold producing areas in Western Australia and is consequently well-serviced by infrastructure and has a skilled local work-force.
The Archaean greenstone belts in the Laverton region are dominantly basaltic in composition, containing ultramafic intercalations, which were subsequently intruded by dolerite dykes in places and which are particularly prospective for gold mineralisation. The areas under licence are partly obscured by a veneer of transported cover and exploration in the area has consequently been limited.
Within the eastern part of Merolia are a series of gold prospects, notably Burtville East, Comet Well and Ironstone. Regional magnetic data over this part of the project identifies several NW-SE trending shear systems which have potential to host substantial gold mineralisation.
This potential has been confirmed by surface geochemical sampling along the Comet Well gold trend, which has identified significant coherent linear soil gold anomalies at Comet South, Comet North, Comet West and at Ironstone.
The Comet Well gold trend extends NW over at least 15km from the Comet Well area in the south to the Burtville East area in the north. In a broader context, the Comet Well gold trend and associated sub-parallel structures extend at least 30 kilometres north to the Stone Resources Australia Limited (ASX: SHK) owned Bright Star (106,000 ounce) gold deposit. Much of the Comet Well gold trend and the known gold prospects in this area are covered by the Merolia project licences.
Previous drilling by WCN across these prospect areas includes 8m at 6.7 g/t Au at Burtville East and 9m at 46.5 g/t Au at Ironstone. In addition, historic drilling at Burtville East includes 5m at 27.8 g/t Au and 24m at 8.6g/t gold at Ironstone.
The Comet Well area has not been drilled to date, but contains a series of distinct sub-parallel 1.25 to 2.5km long NW-trending gold anomalous zones (gold in soils reaching a peak of 2.6 g/t Au), which have yielded substantial quantities of angular gold nuggets through surface prospecting. The angular nature of the gold nuggets suggests a proximal gold source, which will become the focus of further work in this area.
The western part of Merolia contains the Red Flag gold prospect. Previous exploration in the area around Red Flag identified a WNW-trending gold anomalous zone coinciding with a distinct magnetic low. The geology of the area is dominated by mafic volcanic rocks intruded by dolerite dykes, displaying sheared gold mineralised margins in places. This area was drilled, yielding a best near surface intercept of 2m at 9.20 g/t Au.
Panther is currently reviewing other licences in the district and intends to build its project portfolio in this region, which will continue to be referred to collectively as the Merolia Gold Project.
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