Pantera Minerals has completed its maiden diamond drilling program at the Gillham Antimony-Silver Project in southwest Arkansas, marking the first known modern subsurface exploration of the historic mineralized system as the company moves towards its first set of drilling assay results.
Pantera Minerals completes first modern drilling at Gillham. Image Credit: Pantera Minerals
The program comprised nine diamond drill holes totaling 906 meters across the Davis, Stewart and May prospects, targeting potential extensions of previously identified high-grade antimony, silver and polymetallic mineralization beneath historic mine workings.
Core samples have been dispatched for laboratory analysis, with results expected in late November 2026. The assays will provide Pantera with its first modern drilling data to evaluate the mineralized system at depth and help determine future exploration priorities across the broader project.
Gillham forms part of Pantera's strategy to apply modern exploration techniques to historically mineralized and underexplored districts in the United States, with a particular focus on critical minerals.
Antimony is designated as a critical mineral in the US because of its importance across industrial, defense and energy supply chains, placing projects such as Gillham within the country's broader focus on critical minerals supply security.
The drilling program, completed on 16 October 2026, represents the first known modern test of the Gillham system beneath the historic Davis, Stewart and May mines.
All nine holes have been logged, surveyed and cemented, with the drilling rig demobilized following completion of the program. No recordable safety incidents occurred.
Samples have been sent to ALS USA in Nevada for multi-element analysis covering antimony, silver, gold, copper, lead and zinc.
While no assay results have yet been received, the drilling and structural data collected during the program will help Pantera assess the geological features controlling mineralization and evaluate the effectiveness of the drilling orientations tested.
The results will also inform exploration priorities across Gillham's broader pipeline of more than 18 historical antimony and silver workings.
Pantera will now focus on receiving, validating and interpreting the assay results, expected in late November 2026, alongside completing a drilling close-out report and updating its geological model.
The findings will guide the ranking of additional exploration targets and inform the company's allocation of exploration capital across Gillham and its other US critical minerals opportunities.