9 December 2021

Panthera Resources Plc

("Panthera" or "the Company")

West Africa Exploration Update

Panthera Resources Plc (AIM: PAT), the diversified gold exploration and development company with assets in West Africa and India, is pleased to announce that drilling has been completed at the Kalaka Project in Mali and the rig has now commenced drilling a 9,000 metres AC programme at the Bassala Project in Mali.

Highlights

·       2,437m AC drilling completed in 94 drill holes at Kalaka

·       Five targets were tested with a further two partially tested

·       Strong iron oxide after sulphides, quartz veining and shearing logged in target zones

·       Kalaka samples were submitted to the laboratory with assay results expected in late December 2021

·       Rig relocated to Bassala to complete a substantial drilling programme

·       Drilling will test the remaining nine targets at Bassala in an area of intense artisanal workings

·       Drilling will also follow up significant results from the 13 targets drilled in July 2021

·       Initial Bassala assay results expected from January 2022

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

"The combination of shallow AC drilling targeting chargeability anomalies continues to be an excellent targeting tool at our West African projects, with strong alteration intersected at all targets tested by the recent Kalaka programme.  Assay results are eagerly awaited and should be available later in December 2021. 

Drilling has now re-commenced at the Bassala project, where ore grade intersections were returned from the previous drilling programme in July 2021.  We are now testing the remaining targets that include the most intense artisanal workings in the project area as well as testing extensions to the more significant drilling results from earlier in the year."

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/1071V_1-2021-12-9.pdf

pantheraresources.com/news/regulatory-news/

Kalaka

The Kalaka Project is located over the regional scale Banifin Shear Zone in southwestern Mali, approximately 200km southeast of the capital city Bamako. 

The + 7Moz Morila gold mine is located approximately 70km to the north and the plus 6Moz Syama gold mine is located approximately 100km to the southeast.

Kalaka is held by our associated company, Moydow Holdings Ltd (Moydow). As previously announced on 25 August 2021, on the closing of the acquisition of Moydow by Diamond Fields Resources Inc., Panthera will hold a 50% interest in and operate the Kalaka Project. 

Considerable work has been undertaken on the project by previous explorers Anglogold Ashanti and Golden Spear Mali SARL (current JV partner) ("GSM"), including:

·        7,349 soil samples

·        909 line kilometres airborne magnetics and EM

·        9,846m RAB drilling in 235 drill holes

·        3,095m AC drilling in 80 drill holes

·        4,258m RC drilling in 39 drill holes

·        3,753m diamond drilling in 18 drill holes

This work culminated in the identification of the K1A prospect, a large, low-grade gold deposit with drill intercepts over 700m of strike including:

·        249.3m @ 0.54g/t Au from 52m (to end of hole) including 8m @ 3.17g/t Au from 107m

·        191.8m @ 0.52g/t Au from 9m (to end of hole) including 4m @ 2.47g/t Au from 196m

·        176.4m @ 0.49g/t Au from 24m (to end of hole) including 8m @ 1.83g/t Au

Several additional targets were also identified, generally with gold mineralisation between 0.3 and 0.9 g/t Au, suggesting very large tonnages of low-grade gold mineralisation are likely to be present.

Interpretation by Panthera, Moydow and GSM indicates the soil sampling is only effective in a few of the areas tested, due to transported laterite and alluvium masking the geochemical response of bedrock in much of the area.  It was also found that the K1A prospect is defined very precisely by a chargeability high obtained in a test IP survey.  The IP survey area was subsequently expanded twice and now covers most of the southern half of the tenement area, where surface geochemistry is generally not very reliable. 

This work defined twenty chargeability highs, many of higher intensity than that over K1A.  These are all considered to be good drill targets and the higher intensity suggests more sulphides may be present and potentially higher gold grades due to more intense alteration.  This shows a zone of interpreted black graphitic shales defined by very high conductivity, with areas on either side with lower conductivity that are interpreted as non-graphitic metasediments and/or volcanics.  A large, roughly oval-shaped zone of low conductivity, low chargeability and generally moderate resistivity with margins of high resistivity are interpreted as a granitoid intrusion.  The metasediments appear to wrap around this and several areas of interpreted pressure shadows (favourable structural sites for gold mineralisation) are noted, particularly at Targets 1 to 5.

The main targets tested by the current drill programme are summarised below:

The drilling successfully intersected weathered bedrock at all targets tested.  Alteration in the form of iron oxides after sulphides (boxworks), quartz veining and micro-veining, chlorite and muscovite has been logged in the vicinity of the main chargeability highs.  The alteration is generally associated with more foliated lithologies, suggesting more intense deformation (shearing).

Bassala

The Bassala project is located within a 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, 4Moz) 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 ("AngloGold"), 17Moz), Tri-K (Avocet Mining, 3Moz), Kobada (African Gold Group, 3Moz), and Yanfolila (Hummingbird Resources, 2Moz) gold mines.

In the second half of 2020, the Company recommenced exploration activity at Bassala with the results of  gold in soil and ground magnetic surveys announced on 26 March 2021.  These surveys confirmed that two major gold anomalous trends are present, a 9 kilometre long north-northeast trending zone and a second, cross-cutting, 3 kilometre northwest-trending zone. These zones appear to be continuations of significant regional mineralisation trends. 

Following the successful gold in soil and ground magnetic surveys, the Company initiated an IP survey with the results announced on 10 June 2021.  The IP survey confirmed the previous interpretations and identified:

·       Several high order chargeability highs - indicative of disseminated sulphides at depth

·       Three of the chargeability highs can be traced over 6,000m, 4,700m and 2,200m

·       Many of the chargeability highs are associated with geochemical anomalies and artisanal mining activity

Reflecting the positive results from the IP survey, the Company initiated its maiden drilling programme at Bassala.  This was terminated in July 2021 due to the onset of the wet season with a total of 9,997m air core (AC) drilling completed in 164 drill holes and 392 reverse circulation (RC) drilling completed in 4 drill holes.  That is just over half of the proposed drilling.

That work resulted in widespread gold mineralisation being identified in very widely spaced drill traverses with better intercepts from the 5m composite sampling including:

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

·    10m @ 3.45g/t Au from 60m incl. 6m @ 6.59g/t Au from 60m

·    5m @ 5.10g/t Au from 15m

·    5m @ 2.75g/t Au from 55m

·    45m @ 0.57g/t Au from 25m incl. 5m @ 2.53g/t Au from 40m

·    30m @ 0.88g/t Au from 20m incl. 5m @ 3.18g/t Au from 20m

·    20m @ 0.75g/t Au from 15m incl. 5m @ 1.92g/t Au from 15m

·    10m @ 0.96g/t Au from 35m incl. 5m @ 1.44g/t Au from 35m

·    25m @ 0.51g/t Au from 15m incl. 5m @ 2.07g/t Au from 20m

·    5m @ 1.98g/t Au from 40m

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

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

These are considered to be excellent initial results from the broad spaced, minimum 200m x 50m, drill pattern and it was thus decided to finish drilling the proposed programme as well as follow up some of the previous drill intercepts.

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 Consulting 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

Certain information contained in this announcement would have been deemed inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 until the release of this announcement.

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**