Panthera Resources PLC (LON:PAT) Managing Director Geoff Stanley caught up with DirectorsTalk for an exclusive interview to discuss their first drilling programme results at Naton Project in Burkina Faso.
Q1: Geoff, your announcement seems quite encouraging regarding the recent drilling in West Africa. Would you characterise it as a discovery?
A1: Definitely, it is obviously early in the process but the results we have back so far are highly encouraging. The five anomalies we tested, four came back with grades and intersections that could easily be economic depending on the continuity and the overall resource that might outlined through the work. So, yes, it’s looking very good at this stage.
Q2: Several of the intersections that you’ve reported are from single holes into veins or anomalies, what are the plans to follow up on these?
A2: Well, with only one hole on structure, the mineralisation has obviously opened up in all directions, so the plan would be to step out, drill a lot of the these, it would be come back and then progressively step out and begin to get a better understanding of the mineralisation. Unfortunately, we are entering the wet season in Burkina Faso which will slow our ability to follow up on these results but yes, it’ll be step out drilling from here on out I think.
Q3: It seems that you’ve identified gold mineralisation in multiple areas, do you think they’re related or possibly even connected?
A3: At this stage, there’s every indication that at least three of them are connected. We have identified multiple zones within the Somika Hill area that appear to be related and each have good intersections, so they appear geologically similar. The gold anomaly in soils allowed us to target the drilling in the first instance which demonstrates continuity and connectivity between those three structures. So, that is quite encouraging at this stage, it looks it has the potential for a decent size.
Q4: I noted that Panthera Resources’ share price reacted very well at the announcement but then it fell back to close, essentially, unchanged. Do you think the market is sceptical of the results in any way?
A4: I don’t think so, I think the early buying was quite justified and more accurately reflected the value that’s been generated with this discovery. Unfortunately, there does appear to be a forced seller in the market that has had a dampening impact, but I will say though that there were many millions of shares traded and sooner or later that selling is likely to diminish.
So, I think the results speak for themselves, we have multiple intersections between 1 and 3 grams and several much higher, the Kaga Vein itself we had 8 metres at almost 5 grams so indeed I think the results speak for themselves.
Q5: The other corporate focus is India, how is that going?
A5: India is a difficult and bureaucratic place to do business and delays in our permitting are quite frustrating. The positives there are that we’ve built an exceedingly strong legal case and because of that we’re seeing increased levels of interests from industry players as the strength of our claims continue to be confirmed. I think we’re triangulating on a positive result that India being India, it may require some patience but the best way to view our Indian project is that it represents an option over a potentially world-class asset.
The drilling results in West Africa clearly demonstrate that we are able to succeed there and once permitting in India is secured, shareholders should see some real benefits come through in the market.
Q6: As you mentioned, Panthera Resources have a number of other properties in West Africa that you’re actively exploring, how are they progressing?
A6: Exceedingly well, actually, in fact we’ve generated targets on the other projects that appear better than the ones that we drilled last month which generated these great results.
In Mali, at the Bassala project, we’ve outlined very good continuous high artisanal soil anomaly, gold in soils, which is really begging to be drilled. Elsewhere, at Naton, with excellent outlined targets particularly at the Kwademen Prospect which looks very encouraging and as soon as we’re able to get in and drill those, we’ll be back out and following up these great results and test other anomalies we’ve outlined.
So, it looks very encouraging in West Africa, I’m greatly enthused, and we look forward to getting out and recommencing the exploration once the wet season is over.
