Patriot Resources has completed 38 surface samples at its Tassa silver-gold project in Peru, where mapping identified a 120-metre breccia interpreted as the upper part of a preserved epithermal system. The company is now moving south into the newly acquired Tassa 5 tenement while its maiden drill permit application progresses.
- 38 Pachamayo samples sent to ALS for analysis
- 120-metre breccia interpreted as a northern parallel structure
- Mapping and sampling begins across Tassa 5
- Drill permit application lodged with Peru’s Ministry of Energy and Mines
- Peru-based exploration manager appointed
Pachamayo Sampling Points North of Existing Resource
Patriot Resources Limited (ASX:PAT) has finished its first surface sampling program at Pachamayo, immediately north of the Tassa project’s 31.4 million-ounce silver-equivalent inferred mineral resource. The company collected 38 samples and sent them to ALS in Peru, with results expected in early Q4.
Mapping also identified a 20-metre by 120-metre phreatic breccia along a northeast-southwest structure. Patriot interprets the opaline silica, altered volcanic units, clay, iron oxides and possible sulphide remnants as the shallow expression of a preserved epithermal system. That interpretation is encouraging for exploration, but it remains a geological model until assays and drilling provide stronger evidence.
Tassa 5 Extends the Southern Search Area
With approval secured from the Tassa Community, the exploration team is moving south into Tassa 5 and its Priority 1 target zone. The tenement, staked in August, lifted Patriot’s landholding from 1,200 hectares to 1,800 hectares and extended the interpreted Tassa Fault-controlled mineralised corridor from 2.9 kilometres to 3.1 kilometres.
The new mapping and sampling is intended to test that southern extension and help rank drill targets along the corridor. Tassa’s existing resource remains open in all directions, while the company also cites an Exploration Target reported at 774-559 million ounces of silver equivalent from 422-359 million tonnes. That target is conceptual, however, and Patriot cautions that insufficient exploration has been completed to estimate a mineral resource across the area.
Drill Permit Application Lodged
Patriot says its drill permit application has been lodged with Peru’s Ministry of Energy and Mines. The company is also engaging local drilling service providers, with the current mapping and assay work expected to feed into the final selection of maiden drill targets if the permit is granted.
Miguel Montalván Aráoz has joined as Peru Exploration Manager to lead the local exploration team. He brings more than 20 years of experience across Peruvian mining and exploration projects, including epithermal, porphyry, skarn, VMS and IOCG systems.
The next hard evidence should come from the 38 Pachamayo assays. Until those results arrive, the northern extension rests on surface geology and interpretation; the more consequential test will be whether drilling can confirm mineralisation at depth and establish continuity into Tassa 5.
Bottom Line?
Pachamayo has produced a potentially useful geological signal, but assays, permit approval and maiden drilling still stand between an interpreted corridor extension and a material resource increase.
Questions in the middle?
- Will the 38 Pachamayo samples confirm silver-gold mineralisation within the interpreted breccia system?
- How quickly will Peru’s Ministry of Energy and Mines determine the drill permit application?
- Can sampling at Tassa 5 identify drill targets that extend mineralisation beyond the current resource?