Patriot Resources has declared a new, high-grade copper-silver discovery at its Tonic prospect in the Mumbwa district of Zambia, with its maiden drilling program hitting up to 2.56 per cent copper and 62.3 grams per tonne (g/t) silver in shallow drilling.
The company’s first-ever drill campaign at Tonic hit paydirt, with high-grades landing within a broader mineralised envelope, some of which have impressively started from surface.
The high-grade 2.56 per cent copper hit was nestled within a broader 3-metre section going 1.06 per cent copper, 25.3g/t silver and 0.97 per cent zinc from 54m. The same hole also returned a wider 17-metre intercept grading 0.41 per cent copper, 4.7g/t silver and 0.3 per cent zinc from only 29m.
Patriot’s results appear to validate the company’s in-house exploration model, which has now successfully progressed from surface mapping and geophysics to a drill-confirmed discovery.
Management says the mineralisation remains open in all directions, suggesting there’s plenty more to come. One hole even had to be terminated while still in mineralisation due to drilling difficulties, hinting at the potential for the system to continue at depth.
Other early-stage hits from the maiden campaign included a shallow 29m at 9.78g/t silver and 0.11 per cent copper from just 2m, featuring a high-grade silver hit of 1m at 73.9g/t.
The Tonic discovery sits within the company’s broader Kitumba project and the famed Katanga Supergroup rocks of the Central African Copperbelt, a geological hotspot for major base and precious metal deposits.
Notably, the discovery sits just 18km from Sinomine’s brand new US$600 million (A$865 million) Kitumba copper project, where a new processing facility and copper smelter are being commissioned this year to treat ore from its massive 109-million-tonne resource grading one per cent copper.
Patriot Resources managing director and chief executive officer Dominic Duggan said: “This is a proud moment for our team. The Tonic prospect appears to be a genuine Greenfields discovery, the team took an undrilled target, advanced it through mapping, trenching and geophysics, and has now established copper-silver-zinc-cobalt mineralisation from surface via its maiden drilling program.”
The discovery follows a strategic pivot by Patriot, which shifted the company’s focus from its Gorman lithium project in Canada to tier-1-located copper projects in Zambia and Peru. The company recently acquired its Tassa silver-gold project in Peru, which now boasts a considerable 774-million-ounce silver target.
Patriot says its Zambian footprint is massive and contiguous, with recent consolidation making its 525-square-kilometre project one of the biggest ground holdings in the famed Mumbwa district.
Additionally, having tier-1 infrastructure on a project's doorstep is a massive leg up for a junior explorer, potentially solving the multi-billion-dollar question of how to process any future economic resources.
Hitting high-grade copper from surface in a maiden drill program is a solid day at the office for any explorer. But to do it in one of the world’s biggest copper provinces and just a stone's throw from a major new processing plant could be a different game altogether.
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