Patriot Resources has uncorked a mighty maiden mineral resource of 31.39 million ounces of silver-equivalent from its polymetallic Tassa silver-gold project in Southern Peru.
The company’s inferred maiden resource estimate clocked in at 18.53 million tonnes at 52.68 grams per tonne (g/t) for the 31.39 million-ounce silver-equivalent booty, with the silver-only component comprising an impressive 25.5 million-ounces at 42.73g/t.
The silver-dominant polymetallic resource comprises silver, gold, copper, zinc and lead. Gold plays second fiddle in the resource, but still contributes a healthy 40,000 ounces at a grade of 0.06g/t.
Patriot says the resource confirms a large-scale epithermal system that extends from surface and, significantly, the mineralisation remains open in all directions. Notably, the resource is slated for extraction using open-pit mining methods, allowing large-scale machinery to operate more efficiently and at a lower cost than underground mining.
The company is now preparing to ratchet up exploration at the project, with step-out and infill drilling planned to both beef up the resource and upgrade its classification to a higher category.
Management says the Tassa resource was picked up at an equivalent cost of about US$0.04 per silver-equivalent ounce, an impressive result given today's silver price of US$77.40 per ounce.
Patriot Resources executive chairman Hugh Warner said: ‘The delivery of a maiden JORC (2012) inferred mineral resource of 31.4 million-ounces silver-equivalent marks a transformational milestone for Patriot and underscores the exceptional value of the Tassa project.”
Warner said the resource represents a portion of a much larger mineralised system that remains open in all directions, with multiple drillholes ending in mineralisation.
The maiden resource, using a 25g/t silver-equivalent cut-off, drew on data from 26 diamond drillholes totalling 8474.5 metres and defines multiple structurally controlled zones that remain open along strike and at depth.
A total of 12 zones have defined mineral resources, with the C1 zone accounting for the bulk, consisting of 8.26 million tonnes grading 55.73g/t silver-equivalent and containing 14.79 million ounces silver-equivalent.
Previous stellar drill intersections at the project include 60m at 224.2g/t silver from 24m depth, including 16m going 383.9g/t silver, a 37m stretch grading 113.5g/t silver from 154m, including 8.7m at 321g/t and a noteworthy gold hit of 81.9m returning 0.41g/t, with a 24m section going 0.8g/t gold from 332m.
Several significant drill intervals ending in mineralisation consisted of a 26m run grading 25.38g/t silver (32.02g/t silver-equivalent) from 226m to end of hole and a 5.6m slice at 49.5g/t silver (56.57g/t silver-equivalent) from 147m to end of hole, illustrating the potential to increase the size of the resource dramatically.
The project’s initial resource comprises only a portion of the broader system defined by geophysics, surface geochemistry and drilling, with historic modelling completed by leading Canadian resource firm, the US$28.7 billion market-capped Teck Resources.
Teck’s modelling outlined a larger conceptual mineralised envelope extending beyond the resource models' coverage.
Geminas Advisory, the firm that completed the resource number-crunching, has estimated an initial exploration target of 29 million tonnes to 46 million tonnes grading between 43g/t and 59g/t silver-equivalent, for a total of 40 million ounces to 87 million ounces silver-equivalent. The strike length of the exploration target is about 2.8 kilometres.
The company now plans to progress drill permitting and obtain the relevant approvals, complete bulk density tests and undertake further detailed structural logging and modelling.
While Peru is the company’s current focus for its precious metals ambitions, it has locked and loaded a second project into its metals arsenal.
Patriot has its sights on the promising Zambian Mumbwa copper district, holding a complementary base metals project, to load up a one-two punch combination to knock out a commercially economic holding of critical and precious metals.
The Kitumba project lies within the Katanga Supergroup of the Central African Copperbelt, a renowned geological hotspot for major base and precious metal deposits. The project is within a sling shot of Sinomine's Kitumba operation, which is set to fire up its new plant and smelter later this year.
The company says its Zambian footprint is significant, making it one of the largest landholders in the Mumbwa district.
With twin demands from the continued growth in the AI phenomenon and the acceleration of renewable energy, silver and copper are tipped to be two of the biggest winners, which might just propel Patriot to a much bigger player in the metals space with continued exploration success.
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By Craig Nolan
