Pantera Minerals has entered binding agreements to acquire the Corona Gold Project east of Kalgoorlie, gaining a 470 km2 exploration position with an 8 km historical gold anomaly and several soil targets that have yet to be drilled.
Location of the Corona Gold Project relative to Kalgoorlie, regional mills and BPM Minerals’ Forelands Project. Image Credit: Pantera Minerals
The proposed acquisition gives Pantera a Western Australian gold project alongside its US critical minerals portfolio. Corona’s existing exploration data provides targets for follow-up work, although Pantera has not yet confirmed the historical results through its own drilling or sampling.
Previous aircore drilling at Corona returned results including 6 m at 1.5 grams per ton gold. Only one deeper reverse circulation hole was drilled in the immediate prospect area, about 250 m from the strongest historical aircore anomaly. Soil sampling elsewhere on the project returned gold values of up to 128 parts per billion; those anomalies have not been infilled or drill tested.
Corona lies in the Albany Fraser Orogen, along strike from BPM Minerals’ Beachcomber discovery. BPM’s results provide regional context but do not establish the presence or grade of gold at Corona.
Pantera will pay $200,000 for the project, comprising $40,000 in cash and $160,000 in shares. The vendors will also receive royalties over their respective tenements, amounting to 2% in aggregate across the project. Pantera has a fixed-price right to buy back half of each royalty.
Pantera Executive Chairman and CEO Barnaby Egerton-Warburton said: “While our primary focus is the U.S. when a project like Corona becomes available that is cheap, with real targets already defined and a clear path to drilling – we will take it. Eighty percent of the consideration is in Pantera shares, the royalty carries a fixed-price buyback, and our first-year spend goes into soils and drilling rather than the purchase price. We will keep doing deals like this whenever the entry cost is low and the upside is obvious.”
Egerton-Warburton is scheduled to discuss Corona at the JMM Gold Forum on 30 September. Completion of the acquisition remains subject to conditions, including due diligence and any required ministerial consent, and is expected in October 2026.
After completion, Pantera plans to progress heritage and access arrangements, check the historical data and undertake closer-spaced soil sampling. It then intends to rank targets and seek approvals for aircore and reverse circulation drilling, subject to the results and required access arrangements.