Patriot Resources has moved to beef up confidence in the inherited data from its growing Tassa silver-gold play in Peru, with a fresh re-assay program validating historical grades ahead of a planned maiden drill campaign.
The company says 46 samples from seven historical drill holes showed a strong correlation with results previously reported by earlier operators across silver, gold, lead and zinc, effectively backing more than 20 years of geological work at the project.
The latest checks are important because Tassa already hosts a JORC (2012) inferred resource of 31.4 million silver-equivalent ounces grading 52.68 grams per tonne (g/t) silver equivalent, announced in February.
In May, Patriot blew out the project’s broader conceptual exploration target to a range of 559 million and 774 million silver-equivalent ounces from 359 to 422 million tonnes of mineralised material, with grades running between 48 to 57g/t silver equivalent across 19 mineralised zones.
Today’s announcement shifts the focus from mere scale to greater confidence in the numbers, with Patriot saying the re-assay work validates the dataset it inherited from previous owners and strengthens its case for future resource growth drilling.
A batch of 51 samples, including quality control material, was sent to ALS Peru for analysis from Tassa’s north, central and southern zones, selected from drill intercepts spanning a range of grades. The company says results are strongly correlated to the original assay data, with only minor local variations in some southern zone samples.
Patriot says the work comes as Peru’s Ministry of Mining has confirmed that Tassa’s Environmental Impact Declaration remains valid and has no technical issues, while local community discussions continue. With 8500 metres of historical core retained under its own control, the company believes key pieces are falling into place to get the project drill-ready.
Patriot’s next steps include progressing community engagement and permitting, beefing up its in-country geological capability and refining drill targets through broader sampling, mapping and geophysics before a proposed 2026 phase-one drilling program.
Patriot Resources managing director and chief executive officer Dominic Duggan said: “The re-assay program has done exactly what it was designed to do - independently validate the quality and reliability of the data underpinning the Tassa resource. With 8,500 metres of core now in our own facility, our environmental approvals confirmed, and community engagement advancing, we are proactively progressing key activities to achieve our focus of being drill-ready to support our maiden drill program.”
Patriot ended March with $2.765 million in cash after completing its Tassa acquisition in March this year and has since strengthened its Peru-focused team, giving it a solid corporate base to push the project toward drilling.
For Patriot, the re-assaying does more than tick a technical box. It turns years of inherited work into a dataset the company can use more confidently, without requiring a rebuild of the Tassa story from scratch.
If Patriot keeps clearing the remaining permitting and community hurdles, the next big proof point for Tassa should come from the drill bit.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact:
matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Doug Bright
