Panther Metals – Unlocking an Emerging VMS District in Ontario, Canada

Panther Metals PLC (LSE:PALM) is a diversified exploration company focused on a series of projects located in Ontario, Canada.

The company's principal asset is the Obonga Project, located on the Obonga Greenstone Belt in northern Ontario, where Panther has opened up a new district prospective for volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) mineralisation.

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Strategic District Scale Land Holding with Numerous Anomalies

In August 2021, Panther Metals acquired claims covering 88% of the Obonga Greenstone Belt, a 32km long by up to 9km wide section of Archean-aged metamorphosed volcanic, sedimentary, and intrusive rocks. The Obonga Belt appears to be a similar geological environment to the nearby 13.5 million tonne (7.5% Zn, 0.88% Cu, 0.77% Pb and 96.42g/t Ag) Mattabi VMS camp, located c. 75 km to the west.

Historic exploration in the Obonga Belt was initially focused on a series of strong electromagnetic and magnetic anomalies (Figure 1) that have a similar signature to the 5.1 million tonne (15.8% Zn, 1.24% Cu, 29.4 g/t Ag, 0.4 g/t Au) Perseverance Deposit located in the Abitibi Greenstone Belt, and the 4.0 million tonne (2.1% Cu, 1.4% Zn, and 5.8 g/t Ag) McFaulds Deposits, also located in Ontario.

Source: Panther Metals Plc

Results to Date Demonstrate a VMS System is Present

To date, the Obonga Belt has only seen very limited scout drilling. Despite this, the drilling has demonstrated the presence of VMS mineralisation associated with two of the geophysical anomalies.

While most of the mineralisation defined has been large intersections pyrrhotite and pyrite-dominated sulphides, smaller intersections of zinc and silver mineralisation have also been defined, demonstrating the presence of minerals of economic interest within the area.

VMS deposits typically display temperature-controlled zonation of metals, with higher-temperature iron and copper sulphides at the base and lower-temperature zinc-iron-lead-barite mineralisation towards the top and margins. So, the discovery of pyrrhotite and pyrite-dominated sulphides in two locations is a very important indicator of the potential of the area to potentially contain multiple VMS deposits of economic interest.

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Sulphides Prove Exploration Concept

Given the limited amount of drilling in the area, the discovery of suphide mineralisation is an exciting development for Panther Metals, proving the exploration concept for the area. Future work can now focus on trying to define the wider zonation pattern of the area, allowing the company to focus work on targeting areas that could contain sulphide mineralisation of economic interest, such as zinc, copper, silver and gold.

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Copper Lake Samples Indicate Mineralisation in the Area

Further supporting the potential of the area is the copper-in-lake sediment data downstream of the Wishbone Anomaly (Figure 2). These samples returned the highest-level copper anomalies in the entire Province of Ontario, with up to 827 ppm Cu against a background level of less than 25 ppm Cu, a strong indication of significant copper mineralisation in this area.

Source: Panther Metals Plc

Survey Anomaly

At the Survey Anomaly, International Nickel Co of Canada Ltd. (INCO) completed a single shallow, 23.5-meter-deep, drill hole in 1968 in the vicinity of, but not on, the main anomaly. This intersected massive stringer and disseminated pyrrhotite-pyrite sulphide, demonstrating the presence of sulphide mineralisation associated with this anomaly.

Panther followed up on the INCO drill hole with another scout drill hole in November 2022, which was located 1.3 km west of the INCO hole. This drilling defined 29 meters of semi-massive and disseminated pyrrhotite-pyrite sulphide mineralisation, including an anomalous zone of zinc mineralisation with 15 meters at an average grade of 0.11 % Zn from 168 meters (SV-P1-1).

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Wishbone Anomaly

In October 2021, Panther completed two diamond drill holes, totalling 600 meters, at the Wishbone anomaly (Figure 3), this initial scout drill programme defined a series of large pyrrhotite-pyrite dominated massive and semi-massive sulphide lenses, with one of these lenses returning 1.5 meters at an average grade of 1.1% Zn and 3.1g/t Ag from 235.5 meters (WB001).

Follow-up drilling in November 2022 consisting of five holes, totalling 1,002 meters, returned higher-grade zinc mineralisation in one hole with 3.6 meters at an average grade of 3.9% Zn from 120m (WB-P1-2) as well as defining other lenses of pyrrhotite-pyrite dominated massive and semi-massive sulphide.

Source: Panther Metals Plc

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Ottertooth Prospect

The Ottertooth Prospect consists of coincident anomalous electromagnetic and magnetic anomalies adjacent to the geological contact between intrusive mafic rocks and extrusive mafic rocks.

Unlike the two previous anomalies, Ottertooth is untested with no historical drilling reported in the vicinity.

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High-Priority Exploration Target Area to the South

Drilling by BHP in the 1990's defined massive pyrrhotite-pyrite dominated stringer and disseminated sulphides, located around 600 meters south of the Wishbone, leading BHP to rank the anomaly as a high priority for follow-up, however, no further work has been completed.

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Thoughts

Panther Metals' strategic position in the Obonga Greenstone Belt, means that the company is well-positioned to take advantage of the discovery of economic mineralisation within the district.

Exploration in this 32km long by up to 9km wide belt is in its infancy, with limited scout drilling yet to be followed up by a more extensive drill programme.

VMS deposits typically occur in clusters and Panther has proven the presence of VMS systems at both the Survey Anomaly and the Wishbone Anomaly, a significant achievement from such limited exploration programmes.

In February of this year, Panther submitted an exploration permit for up to 39 drill holes at the Wishbone Anomaly and an airborne drone-based high-resolution magnetic survey to further refine targets ahead of drilling.

With a current market capitalisation of ￡3.5 million, a discovery would lead to a significant re-rating of the company’s market value.

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