Panoro waiting for the cheque from its partner

While results from Panoro Minerals’ (PML-V) infill drilling program at the Antilla project in Peru were inline with company expectations, the behaviour of its Peruvian joint venture partner has been anything but.

Vancouver-based Panoro signed a JV with Lima-based Centauro SAC back in early April of this year that saw Centauro take over as operator of the project.

The deal called for Centauro to pay Panoro US$8 million in cash and invest US$17 million into the project in order to earn a 70% interest over a 30 month period.

At the time of the deal, Panoro’s president and CEO Luquman Shaheen had nothing but praise for its new partner, heralding that Centauro as a “successful Peruvian mining company with a proven track record” and went on to say that the partnership was “a great example of Canadian exploration and Peruvian mining companies working together”.

But Panoro likely has a bitter taste in its mouth now that the privately held Centauro has missed a key payment deadline. The company was due to pay Panoro US$4 million as part of the JV agreement back on July 16 but no money was forthcoming.

“Panoro is working to resolve the matter as quickly as possible,” the company said in a statement.

The situation likely played a part in a down day for the company as in Toronto on Aug. 20 the Panoro’s shares were off 8% or 2¢ to 24¢ on 50,000 shares traded.

As for the assay results, they came out of the second batch of four drill holes that were drilled as part of its infill drill program at the East Block of project’s main zone.

Highlights include 39.8 metres grading 0.84% copper and 0.028% molybdenum, 58.4 metres grading 0.69% copper and 0.013% molybdenum and 73.5 metres grading 0.46% copper grading 0.005% molybdenum.

While those wide intercepts were anticipated the company says the results point to the possibility that the average grade of the deposit will increase in the next resource update.

The high grade zone at the project currently has an inferred resource of 70 million tonnes grading 0.56% copper and 0.011% molybdenum.

Overall, however, Antilla has an inferred resource of 154 million tonnes grading 0.47% copper and 0.009% molybdenum.

The company says mineralization consists of a tabular blanket of supergene sulphide mineralization dominated by chalcocite and molybdenite and is open to the north and northeast.