As result of the approval, Panoro now has at its disposal 2,923ha of prospective land for exploration, building on the previous results gleaned from 2,172m of drilling. The original approved area permitted 311 drilling platforms in the area of the Ccalla, Azulccaca, Guaclle, Petra-David and María José targets in Cluster 1.

The expanded area now allows for a further 295 drilling platforms to explore targets in the Zones I, II and III of the Chaupec skarn, in Cluster 2.

Cluster 2 has been the subject of extensive recent mapping, sampling and geophysical survey studies by Panoro, which have identified the occurrence of skarn copper-gold-silver mineralisation over extensive areas.

"Panoro's exploration plans for Cluster 2 will target the addition of high-grade near-surface skarn mineralisation to the current mine plan to further enhance the economics of the project. The scale of the resource potential in Cluster 2 may be significant with the potential to increase the scale of the project identified in the current PEA," said president and CEO Luquman Shaheen.

The company, with a market value of C$63 million, has seen its equity lose about 40% since January, to trade at C24c a share.