The project comprises 65sq.km of licences hosting two "significant" quartz vein structures mined by artisanal miners over at least a 9km strike.

Panthera said this was the first time the licences had been combined under one ownership and it had the opportunity to "integrate the significant amount of previous drilling and optimise the resource potential".

The company's shares jumped 10.53% on the news to 2.1p (US2.7c).

Previous explorers announced combined JORC and 43-101 resources of over 600,000 ounces of gold averaging 1.2g/t and previous drill result highlights included 2m at 130.6g/t gold from 66m; 11m at 8.2g/t gold from 147m; and 6.5m at 7.26g/t golf from 318m.

Panthera said it would undertake four months of due diligence on Labola and, as long as this justified continuing, would follow up with exploration, resource definition and development over a five-year period.

The undisclosed vendor will get annual payments of US$50,000 for the project, which would stop if Panthera chose to pay $1 million for full ownership any time within the five years.

The company also agreed to pay the vendor another $1 million once it successfully defined a JORC resource of at least 1 million ounces, with the vendor retaining a 1% net smelter royalty on all gold produced up to a total aggregate payment of $2 million.

Panthera managing director Geoff Stanley described the agreement "as great opportunity to fast track Panthera's path to an economic resource in Burkina Faso". 

"The large strike extent of artisanal workings and the significant amount of previous drilling significantly de-risks the project and we are optimistic it will allow us to plan a major drill-out for later this calendar year," he said.