Drilling underway at WA manganese project
Earlier this morning, our exploration Investment Pantera Minerals (ASX:PFE) announced that second phase drilling was now underway at its Weelarrana Manganese Project.
This follows promising results from its maiden campaign, with manganese intercepted within 16 of 30 holes drilled within Mn Area 1, and achieving our base case scenario of 8-15% grade.
Of note, Weelarana is located roughly 45km south of Element 25’s resource of 263Mt of manganese ore grading ~10% Mn. It is that mine which attracted EU auto giant Stellantis to invest directly into Element 25.
Some 2,500 metre of Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling is planned, which should deliver approximately 100 drill holes, and take two weeks to complete.
This campaign incorporates the first drill testing of high-grade, outcropping manganese targets (surface grades between 7.5% - 42%) at Mn Area 2, 3 & 4, where 1900m (77 holes) of RC drilling is planned. It will also include 600m (25 holes) of RC infill and extension drilling at Mn Area 1, which was the sole focus of the maiden campaign.
During the first round of drilling PFE intercepted manganese in 16 holes of the 30 holes drilled. Of those, the three best intercepts were:
- 5m at 12.3% manganese from surface
- 3m at 19.7% manganese from a depth of 3m
- 2m at 17.1% manganese from a depth of 3m
These results fit within our “base case” for the drilling campaign.
We are hoping that this new drilling will exceed this base case expectation which we set as follows:
- Bull Case: Mn grades of 20%; deposit open in at least one direction
- Base Case: Mn grades of 8-15% in line with Element 25’s manganese deposit
- Bear Case: No manganese (or trace manganese) found in assays.
What’s next?
Drilling should be completed in early May, and so we could expect assay results early in the Q3 2023.
Subject to the results, we could expect an infill drilling campaign for Mn Areas 2, 3 and 4 for mid-2023.
