Panthera kicks off drilling at Bido Project

(Sharecast News) - West Africa and India-focussed gold explorer and developer Panthera Resources announced the start of a drilling programme at its Bido Project in Burkina Faso on Wednesday. The AIM-traded firm said the programme aimed to further explore and develop the gold potential in the region.

It said the drilling would comprise 2000 metres of reverse circulation (RC) drilling.

The primary focus would be on the Beredo-Kikouyou prospect, targeting coincident geochemical and geophysical anomalies identified in previous exploration activities.

Panthera said the programme would include three distinct drill fences, with the northern drill fence to test the Bido vein, a quartz vein currently being explored by orpailleurs, or artisanal miners, to depths of up to 30 metres.

The central drill fence would target a valley between two hills, an area with evidence of past alluvial mining activity along a strike to exposed quartz veining, and the southern drill fence aimed to test an exposed quartz vein that has returned anomalously high gold values from systematic rock and soil sampling programmes.

"The Bido project is an exciting gold prospect for the company that is maturing as gold prices push through $2,400 per ounce," said managing director Mark Bolton.

"The company has been actively exploring the licence for several years culminating in a focused drilling campaign."

Bolton added that the three drill fences would test targets selected by their coincident geophysics, visible quartz veining and orpailleurs activity.

"As previously reported, the company continues to advance the potential restructuring of its interest in its West African gold assets inclusive of funding for both this drilling programme and advancing these assets going forward."

At 1409 BST, shares in Panthera Resources were down 0.72% at 4.96p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.