Patriot Resources has secured the final piece of the puzzle, signing a five-year land access agreement with the local Tassa community to begin drilling its massive Tassa silver-gold project in Peru.
The deal provides the company with the crucial social licence to conduct all surface exploration activities, including drilling, across the project area, which hosts a maiden JORC-inferred resource of 31.4 million ounces of silver equivalent and a colossal exploration target of between 559 million and 774 million silver-equivalent ounces.
Securing community consent in the established silver-producing jurisdiction of Peru is often one of the toughest hurdles in getting an exploration program underway, making this authorisation more than just a formality - it's the key that unlocks the next phase of work. Several junior explorers in the country have recently announced similar local agreements, highlighting the crucial engagement that gates a project before the drill rigs can mobilise.
The new agreement will combine with an existing deal and the recently inked Pachamayo community agreement, providing Patriot with access across the entirety of its substantial project, including its recently pegged Tassa 5 tenement, which extends the interpreted silver mineralised strike target to more than 3km.
The company says surface exploration on the high-grade silver deposit is expected to kick off shortly, with target definition and drilling to follow.
Patriot Resources chief executive officer and managing director Dominic Duggan said: “Concluding this five-year agreement with the Tassa Community gives us a clear, multi-year pathway to carry out surface exploration and drilling across the Company's Tassa high-grade silver deposit. The agreement includes our recently pegged Tassa 5 tenement.”
The Tassa project already hosts a substantial resource estimate of 18.53 million tonnes grading 52.68 grams per tonne (g/t) silver equivalent for 31.4 million ounces. However, the real prize is a mammoth exploration target recently outlined by Patriot, sitting between a head-spinning 559 million and 774 million ounces of silver equivalent.
The company says its target is backed by a wealth of historical data from previous operators, including mining major Teck and previous owner Bear Creek Mining, with high-grade drill hits such as 60m at 224g/t silver from just 24m headlining the rich system. Higher-grade sections are also not far from surface, with another hole returning an eye-catching 4-metre hit grading 919.5g/t silver from 36m.
The latest announcement also firms up the company’s strategic pivot to become a pure-play Peruvian precious metals explorer. Patriot confirmed its intention to divest its Zambian copper portfolio, following a previously announced plan to offload its Gorman lithium project in Canada.
With the social licence secured and a recent $3 million capital raise in the bank, Patriot has all the pieces in place to start unlocking Tassa's potential. The drill bit will now determine whether the project can translate into its resource potential of genuinely staggering scale.
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By Andrew Todd
