- Overview
- OVERVIEW OF PROJECTS
- Brazilian Projects
- CrixÁs Hub, Gold
- PREMIER
- BAU
- O CAPITAO
- GUARINHOS
- PANTERA
- AmapÁ Hub, Iron Ore
- PORTO GRANDE
- Chilean Projects
- Canela Hub
- About South America
- MINING IN BRAZIL
- MINING IN CHILE
Pantera
Highlights
- Highly prospective for gold
- Geologically consistent with the nearby Serra Grande mine
Pantera is a large tenement suite that abuts the southern-most point of Premier. It is approximately 11km from Crixas; 7km from Serra Grande's producing mines and no more than 3km from other mines under development. The Pantera project occupies the Crixas Greenstone Belt: an area that is emerging as a centre for gold mining in Brazil.
The ground is highly-prospective for gold, with its geology and mineralisation structures appearing consistent with those found at AngloGold Ashanti/Kinross' Serra Grande project. Metago conducted exploration activities, including soil geochemistry, mapping and airborne geophysics, from 1979. These studies focused on finding nickel, copper, cobalt, chromium and zinc but not gold.
History
It wasn't until recently that Brazil's largest private mining company, Votorantim Metais Niquel, and also IMS Empreendimentos resumed nickel-focused exploration activities in the Pantera project area. Drilling and a VTEM geophysical survey did not uncover economic quantities of nickel; however, they were encouraging for the prospectivity of gold. Votorantim geologists identified the continuation of Serra-Grande-style lithology, structures and accessory minerals (quartz and sulphides). The prospective structures are also identified in both VTEM and Magnetic geophysical surveys.
The Tenement Surrender Report states:
"[Pantera] has interesting potential for Au. The identification of brittle structures S2 (azimuth 300) that cut the carbonaceous sulphide metasedimentary sequence should be the main model to be followed in gold prospecting. These structures when associated with quartz veins can be elements in the hub's Au (sic) a model similar to what occurs in Mina (mine) Serra Grande. Remember that thick quartz (similar to the mina) was identified in the mapping detail, in association with the area where the metasediments occur and structures S2.........It is now down to the next group of prospectors who study the area to focus research on the potential for Au. Geochemistry of detail, but mainly structural geology and drilling are needed to further work."