30 September 2021

Panthera Resources Plc

("Panthera" or "the Company")

Final Aircore Results Deliver Best Assays at Bassala

Panthera Resources Plc (AIM: PAT), the diversified gold exploration and development company with assets in West Africa and India, is pleased to announce that the final assay results of the Aircore (AC) drilling at the Bassala gold project have now been received. 

The AC results have confirmed the presence of additional significant gold mineralisation in the northern part of the project area, associated with a linear chargeability high and artisanal workings, where an intercept of 20m @ 2.11g/t Au from 10m has been returned, including 10m @ 3.79g/t Au from 20m.

Highlights

·       Significant drill intercepts from the 5m composite samples include:

o  20m @ 2.12g/t Au from 10m incl. 10m @ 3.79g/t Au from 20m.

o  6m @ 1.59g/t Au from 70m (end of hole).

o  5m @ 1.41g/t Au from 35m (end of hole).

·       These new drill results now confirm mineralisation in the northern part of the licence, most of which is planned to be drilled later in the year.

·       Best results are in an area associated with a strong chargeability high over 6km in length and with significant intermittent artisanal workings.

·       All areas tested to date have returned significant gold mineralisation, confirming the targeting methodology is effective.

·       The assays for four Reverse Circulation (RC) drill holes are pending.

·       The remaining nine of the 22 targets identified at Bassala, primarily in the north, are planned to be drilled after the wet season.

Commenting on the announcement, Mark Bolton, Managing Director of Panthera said:

"These assay results continue to expand the mineralised area at Bassala, with mineralisation at all targets drill tested to date confirming that our targeting techniques are effective.  Good grade mineralisation has now being shown over a strike of some 5.5 kilometres. 

The drill assay results, which include our best results to date, expand the mineralisation further north which will be the focus of our drilling in the December quarter.   This is also the area of most artisanal activity.

The results from the deeper RC drilling are expected in October 2021 with further drilling planned at the Bassala and Kalaka Projects after the wet season."

A PDF version of the announcement, inclusive of images, can be found on the Company's website or by following the links below:

http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/4753N_1-2021-9-30.pdf

pantheraresources.com/news/regulatory-news/

Technical Details

The Bassala project is located within the highly gold endowed Birimian volcano-sedimentary belt in southwestern Mali, approximately 200km south of the capital city Bamako. 

The belt hosts the Kalana (Endeavour Mining, 3Moz) and Kodieran (Wassoul'or, 2Moz) gold mines, both within a few kilometres of the Bassala project.  The adjacent belt to the west is also well endowed with gold and hosts the Siguiri (AngloGold Ashanti, 17Moz), Tri-K (Avocet Mining, 3Moz), Kobada (African Gold Group, 3Moz), and Yanfolila (Hummingbird Resources, 2Moz) gold mines.

The project has only seen limited previous exploration, mainly broad spaced surface sampling and RAB drilling by AngloGold around 2011.

Work by Panthera, since it farmed into the area, has consisted of geological and regolith mapping, systematic soil sampling at 200m x 50m spacing, ground magnetic surveying and IP surveying.  This work identified 22 targets that were selected for initial Aircore drill testing.

Panthera Drill Programme

In total, 9,997m air-core (AC) drilling was completed in 164 drill holes and 392m reverse circulation (RC) drilling was completed in 4 drill holes. 

The drill rig used was a Schramm-2 with a 350psi 900cfm compressor and utilised a face sampling hammer.  RC drilling also used a face sampling hammer but with a larger diameter.  Samples were collected via cyclone.

Most holes are angled at -60 degrees from horizontal toward the east (090°) but several are oriented toward the west (270°) in the central part of Target 19 due to access constraints.  Table 1 shows results for all Aircore drilling not previously reported including drill hole collar locations, dips, azimuths and total depths as well as all assay results received above 100ppb Au.

Samples were collected directly from the cyclone and riffle split every metre, with one sample collected and bagged for future reference and a separate split combined into a 5m composite for initial assay.  Samples are kept in secure premises near-site and subsequently, the 5m composites were transferred to an accredited laboratory (SGS Bamako) for assay for gold using low-level detection fire assay technique.  QaQc checks including blanks, duplicates and standards were inserted at regular intervals and all results are within acceptable confidence limits.  The 1m splits are kept in secure premises near the site for future assay.

The programme had to be stopped early due to the onset of the wet season.  Drilling has been completed on targets 10 through 22.  The remaining targets, 1 through 9, primarily in the northern area, are planned to be drilled after the wet season, later in the current year.  This northern area, which comprises the majority of the active artisanal workings at Bassala, has 117 AC holes planned to be drilled.

The current programme has tested all but one of the areas previously drilled by AGEX approximately 10 years ago, as well as the highest order gold in soil geochemical anomalies and the highest priority chargeability highs.

The drill cuttings show the main rock types are metasediments including sandstone, siltstone, shale and schist.  Strong quartz veining and alteration (sulphide or limonite after sulphide, chlorite and silica) is observed at all targets tested to date.  Sulphides are generally represented by boxwork textures or limonite replacing sulphides, but occasionally fresh pyrite and/or arsenopyrite has been logged.

A total of 2,191 five metre composite samples have been collected from the drilling and 2060 assay results (excluding QaQc assays) have been received to date.  The remaining assays are from the RC drilling and are expected over the next two weeks.  It is planned to re-assay all gold mineralised samples at 1 metre intervals, as the 5m composites may dilute smaller, higher-grade intervals. 

Results

All results greater than 100ppb Au (0.1g/t Au) received from the current batch of assays are presented in Table 1 below.  This shows several broad intervals up to 60m downhole at plus 0.1g/t Au, plus several 5m intercepts (smallest sampling unit) grading up to 3.92g/t Au.  It is anticipated that the broad intervals will also resolve into narrower but higher grade intervals when 1m sampling has been completed.

While the mineralisation has been confirmed to be relatively flat or shallowly dipping in the south of the tenement area, similar to the nearby Kalana mineralisation, this is not so apparent in the northern part of the area drilled to date and there may be a more vertical component in that area (see attached cross-sections). 

TABLE 1: Assay Intervals Received in the Latest Batch of Assays

The flat-lying to shallowly dipping nature of gold mineralisation is evident at Targets T19 to T22 whereas Targets T10 to T18 may be a more sub-vertical attitude.   A close relationship between gold mineralisation and chargeability anomalies is evident.

Full analysis of all results will be provided once the remaining RC drill assays are received.

Contacts

Panthera Resources PLC

Mark Bolton (Managing Director)                                                                              +61 411 220 942

                                                                                                            contact@pantheraresources.com

Allenby Capital Limited (Nominated Adviser & Broker)                               +44 (0) 20 3328 5656

John Depasquale / Vivek Bhardwaj (Corporate Finance)                                                               

Financial Public Relations

Vigo Communications Ltd                                                                                      +44 (0)20 7390 0230

Oliver Clark / Chris McMahon

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Qualified Person

The technical information contained in this disclosure has been read and approved by Antony Truelove (BSc (Hon), MAusIMM, MAIG), who is a qualified geologist and acts as the Competent Person under the AIM Rules - Note for Mining and Oil & Gas Companies.  Antony Truelove is the COO of Panthera Resources PLC.

Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information for the purposes of Regulation 11 of the Market Abuse (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019/310. Upon the publication of this announcement via a Regulatory Information Service ("RIS"), this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain. 

Forward-looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on the Company's current expectations and estimates. Forward-looking statements are frequently characterised by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate", "suggest", "indicate" and other similar words or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from estimated or anticipated events or results implied or expressed in such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others: the actual results of current exploration activities; conclusions of economic evaluations; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; possible variations in ore grade or recovery rates; accidents, labour disputes, and other risks of the mining industry; delays in obtaining governmental approvals or financing; and fluctuations in metal prices. There may be other factors that cause actions, events, or results not to be as anticipated, estimated, or intended. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or results or otherwise. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and accordingly, undue reliance should not be put on such statements due to the inherent uncertainty therein.

**ENDS**