The markets might be struggling but Panther Metals isn’t
“…On Obonga we’re going to be doing stuff that has the potential to transform the company results with a drill bit. This is going to give the investors multiples…”
Panther Metals PLC has had a hectic two and half years since it listed on the main market back in January 2020.
A Covid pandemic, a spin out of its Australian interests into ASX-listed Panther Metals Limited and a portfolio of anomalies in Canada and the board has barely stopped for breath.
Chief executive Darren Hazelwood doesn’t like clutter. You get a glimpse of the office tidiness if you watch him on a virtual call, and the tidiness translates to the business strategy. Rather than have one company dealing with a smorgasbord of projects 9000 miles apart, have one listed entity focused on the Canadian portfolio and the other on the Australian interests.
He oversees the Canadian portfolio and Panther Metals plc, whilst it has 36.6% of the Australian business, has no operational or administrative control. Hazelwood is consistent about how well he thinks the Board of Panther Metals Limited is doing.
Perhaps the only criticism is that the Australian company could have had a different name so that folk don’t get their PLC’s mixed up with their Limited’s.
But what investors should be clear about is the clear pathway Hazelwood has mapped for the upcoming exploration campaign in Canada.
Dotted Lake is in play but is doing so in the most cost effective way. Panther is using data being provided to the public by neighbour TSX-listed Palladium One which is working on its patch alongside Panther’s plot. “We’ve got anomalous copper, nickel and cobalt within a defined area that matches the geological signatures that Palladium One are having so much success attacking in that region,” says Hazelwood. “We’re going to let Palladium One carry on with their work. Let them add the value.”
That piggybacking of intelligence gathering frees up Panther to concentrate on Obonga which Hazelwood has long been excited about “because on Obonga we’re going to be doing stuff that has the potential which will transform the company results with a drill bit.”
Panther will be drilling five areas in one campaign and the reason again is tidiness and cost effectiveness. “I could spend six months building up to drilling each area individually, go through the general consensus of a junior exploration company, build it up, drill it, rinse and repeat. I’m not doing that.”
Hazelwood says Obonga is “what’s going to give the investors the multiples.”
There is just one fly in the ointment that could unsettle the campaign and that’s finding a decent camp cook. They are worth their weight in gold and are more scarce than riggers. Applications have been invited.
In this extended conversation with Sarah Lowther, Darren outlines the Canadian assets; which ones are being drilled, which are not and how a neighbour is providing free intelligence to inform the company strategy on another.
Watch Darren talk to StockBox’s Mark Fairbairn about Dotted Lake’s prospectivity
Access the company’s June 2022 Corporate Presentation
Follow the company on Twitter @PantherMetals
The author was remunerated but does not hold shares in the company