Panther Metals PLC announced the appointment of Bayside Geoscience Inc. (Bayside) of Thunder Bay, Ontario, to commence graphite focussed ground exploration work on the Awkward and Awkward East prospect areas on the eastern side of the Obonga Project. The Company's Obonga Project covers 90% (291 km2) of the district scale Obonga Greenstone Belt in northwest Ontario, Canada. The Awkward area is also prospective for nickel-copper-platinum group element bearing magmatic conduits as well as graphite.

Further Graphite Targets: On 29 December 2023 Panther announced the Obonga Project Awkward East Claim Purchase Agreement 3, which has enlarged the Awkward Prospect area by an additional 7.25 km2 to the east. A review of historical reports for the Awkward East area has shown that a single 55m long diamond hole (Number 66-1) drilled by Cantri Mines Limited in June 1966 intersected three graphitic 'flow' zones interbedded with rhyolite on the western end of the Awkward East claim block. Whilst this drill hole was a single isolated hole it is located on the eastern end of a 6.5km long conductive lineament (the 'Cantri Trend') based on the Garden-Obonga Airborne Geophysical Survey flown by the Ontario Government in late 1999.

It is noteworthy that the Cantri Trend runs to 2km to the north and parallel to Panther's Trend 3 and that both can in part be attributed to graphite. Initial geological interpretation has established a preliminary graphite target area in the region of 21 km2 across the Awkward and Awkward East prospect areas. In addition to the graphite potential Awkward remains a highly anomalous magnetic target, interpreted to be a layered mafic intrusion and magmatic conduit based on mapped geology and airborne geophysics.

Historic sampling in the area returned anomalous platinum and palladium (Pt, Pd) values, while historic drilling on the periphery of the target intersected non-assayed massive sulphide and copper (assumed to be chalcopyrite), non-assayed disseminated pyrite and chalcopyrite in coarse gabbro, and non-assayed 'marble cake' gabbro (matching the description of the Lac des Iles Mine varitexture gabbro ore zone).