PAT raises $3M to fund first drill program at Peru silver project

Our silver Investment Patriot Resources (ASX: PAT) just raised $3M at 5.5c per share.

(nice no oppies)

We participated in the raise, increasing our position.

Executive Chairman Hugh Warner is also putting in ~$140,800 of his own money, subject to shareholder approval.

PAT will now be funded to progress its two assets:

1. The 31.4Moz silver equivalent JORC resource in Peru (Sitting inside a giant 559 to 774Moz silver equivalent JORC Exploration Target), and
2. A copper discovery in Zambia - next door to $8BN Sinomine's Kitumba copper development, where a processing plant and smelter are being commissioned this year.

Here is a slide from PAT’s new preso giving an overview of its key projects:

You can see the presentation here.

PAT confirmed the funds will be used for:

1. The initial drill program at its Tassa silver-gold project in Peru
2. Mapping, sampling and target generation across the northern portion of Tassa (where PAT recently secured its community agreement)
3. Exploration at its Zambian copper project

Next we wait to see the community access agreements and permitting sorted for the silver-gold project.

PAT’s Peru Silver Project

We are Invested in PAT to see it drill out this project into what we hope is a rising silver price.

Last week PAT received confirmation from the community groups at the northern end of its project for surface exploration work to commence.

Here is where the agreement covers:

(source)

PAT will now run a mapping and sampling program over a three month period to rank drill targets on its project.

We are hoping today's agreement acts as a catalyst for the other communities in the area.

PAT is still in discussions with the Tassa Community over access to other parts of the project ahead of an initial drill program, we covered this here.

It had acquired the southern block just prior, and the area sits in good company with some major global mining majors in the area:

(source)

PAT also has a copper discovery in Zambia

At a time when copper is regularly setting new highs now:

(source)

Yes, we are in PAT for the silver project in Peru.

But this copper asset becomes more interesting the more work PAT does on it, and the more we look at it.

(and the more the copper price keeps moving up around its all time highs).

One of the biggest kickers for us is how PAT’s new copper discovery sits ~18km from $8BN Sinomine's Kitumba copper project.

Sinomine is currently building a processing plant and copper smelter here and expects to have it online by the end of this year.

PAT’s chair Hugh Warner also has history with Sinomine - doing placement and offtake deals with Sinomine on a lithium project in Zimbabwe which ended in a US$378M cash pay day to shareholders.

By the time the takeover happened, Sinomine was one of Hugh’s biggest backers as a major shareholder of that company.

(source)

And PAT also acquired a licence nearby that sits ~17km along strike from the Fishtie/Kashime copper project, owned by $37BN First Quantum Minerals.

(source)

PAT’s technical team has already been to site, completing first-pass geological mapping within days of the acquisition, we covered this here.

And PAT already wants to drill here this year, so they must be liking what they see from surface.

The mapping identified the same style of rock unit that hosts the copper at Fishtie/Kashime nearby.

(No sampling has been taken yet, so the ground remains untested form an assay point of view, which is what matters most)

See our latest Deep Dive on the copper discovery: PAT: New Copper discovery extends to 5.5km target corridor... 18km from $860M Chinese copper mine

What’s next for PAT?

Drill and update the current silver resource

We want to see PAT drill its silver project in Peru and confirm the existing 31.4M ounce silver equivalent JORC resource estimate.

With the first drill campaign, we want to see the previous results confirmed with infill drilling.

Here are the milestones we are tracking for that program:

• 🔲 Drilling permits
• 🔲 Phase 1 drill program (mostly infill drilling)
• 🔲 Assay results from phase 1 drilling

Drill follow up holes on the copper discovery

We want to see PAT drill out and extend its copper discovery in Zambia.

Interestingly, PAT’s discovery announcement said “several of the holes terminated in mineralisation or ended before their planned target depth”.

So it could be that the discovery is bigger than what PAT has defined on the project so far.

(source)

Since then PAT has acquired another project nearby which it also plans to drill this year. (source)