Panther Metals (PALM ) is to deploy a second drill rig to the Wishbone massive sulphide prospect on the Obonga project in Canada.
Once onsite the additional drilling capacity will accelerate exploration past the originally planned 2,000 metre drilling budget.
The first diamond core drill hole successfully attained the planned downhole depth of 300 metres, intersecting nine distinct zones of massive, semi-massive and iron-silicate dominated sulphide mineralisation between 77.75 metres and 245 metres.
These intersections included 3.45 metres of pyrrhotite dominated massive sulphide and 9.9 metres of semi-massive sulphide from 77.75 metres downhole depth.
Between 98 metres to 105 metres visual core logging has identified sulphide-rich metasediments interpreted as greenalite exhalite rocks which may have formed when iron and silica rich hydrothermal fluids mixed with seawater in proximity to the ancient seafloor hydrothermal vents associated with VMS and precious metal mineralisation.
These greenalites continued alternating in sulphide tenor from 112.5 metres to 119 metres, with further pyrrhotite massive sulphide at between 137 metres and 139 metres, and semi-massive sulphide intervals at deeper depths.
The second diamond core drill hole Wishbone has intersected the target VMS horizons along strike to the south, with a projected end of hole depth horizontal spacing between the inclined holes of circa 170 metres.
In this hole, alternating massive and semi-massive sulphide has been intersected between 63.5 metres and 78.4 metres downhole and between 107 metres and 120 metres downhole.
Alternating sulphide rich metasediments interpreted as greenalite exhalite rocks and semi-massive sulphides continue from 120 metres to the currently logged core depth of 158 metres downhole.
A further two drill pads have been prepared and a fifth drill pad will be ready in advance of the second drill rig arriving onsite.
"The sulphide mineralisation observed in the first and second diamond drill holes of the current Wishbone drilling programme is particularly encouraging when viewed alongside the assay results from previous drilling at Wishbone, where we intersected 3.6 metres grading 3.9% zinc, including 2.0 metres at 6.8% zinc and 4.3 g/t silver, with individual assays returning up to 11.65% zinc,” said Darren Hazelwood, chief executive of Panther Metals.
“Whilst the drill core has yet to be cut, sampled and laboratory assayed, the visual core logging of significant widths of sulphide mineralisation, which coincides with our three-dimensional geophysical inversion model, show we are building out a large-scale VMS system at Wishbone".
View from Vox
There’s clearly a lot going on geologically at Wishbone, and Panther’s aspiration to delineate a large volcanic massive sulphide system there looks to be on track. How large, and what sort of mineralisation will it host remain the key imponderables ahead of further drilling and assays, but the addition of a second drill rig should expedite matters somewhat. There’s clearly something worth investigating at Wishbone, but how big and how rich it will be remains to be seen.