Pacific Ridge Exploration (PEX.V) has released the assay results from hole RDP-22-05 which was drilled on the RDP copper-gold project in British Columbia. As a reminder, Pacific Ridge has an active joint venture agreement with senior producer Antofagasta (ANTO.L) whereby the latter can earn a 75% interest in the project by completing C$10M in exploration expenditures and complete a PEA on the project.
And the very first hole drilled by the partners seems to have hit the sweet spot. The drill bit intersected 497.2 meters of 0.66% copper-equivalent (or 0.96 g/t gold-equivalent if that’s what you prefer) consisting of 0.37% copper, 0.40 g/t gold and 1.6 g/t silver. Those grades are typical and even on the higher end of the BC copper porphyry spectrum (where 0.3 + 0.3 is deemed feasible, so 0.37 + 0.40 clearly is a good result). Starting at a down-hole depth of less than 16 meters (so almost literally at surface), this hole is one of the deepest and highest-grade holes drilled at RDP so Pacific Ridge and Antofagasta are clearly off to a good start. This doesn’t mean we should expect the partners to replicate this result in every hole drilled at RDP and the simple fact this hole was rushed to and through the lab likely indicates it could very well be the best hole from the entire summer drill program of RDP. Only time will tell, but 497 meters of 0.66% CuEq won’t be easy to replicate.
As you can see in the table above, the thick interval contained several thinner zones with even higher grade mineralization. Starting at the same 15.8 meters, the 107.2 meter interval of 1.41% CuEq including 23 meters of 2.32% CuEq is excellent and having this grade so close to surface will be a big help to determine the economics in the PEA Antofagasta is required to complete. PEX and ANTO drilled six holes at RDP this summer, which means the assay results from five more holes remain outstanding and should be released in the next few weeks.
Disclosure: The author has a long position in Pacific Ridge Exploration. Pacific Ridge is a sponsor of the website. Please read our disclaimer.
