Pacific Ridge Exploration (PEX.V) has announced the assay results from the 2022 drill program on the RDP copper porphyry project. Antofagasta (ANTO.L), the senior copper producer, is earning a 75% interest in the project and bankrolled the drill program.
A first, very strong, hole was released in October. That hole was rushed to the lab, and the turnaround times for the other holes (which weren’t rushed as the visuals were not as good as what the field team saw in the first hole) was longer than anticipated.
Those results are now in, and confirm the initial six hole drill program encountered significant copper mineralization in all six holes. Hole 5 was the excellent hole with 497 meters of 0.37% copper and 0.40 g/t gold and as expected, none of the other five holes came even close to replicating that hole.
This doesn’t mean the five additional holes are bad. Except for hole RDP22-006 (which clearly was the weakest hole of the five), every other hole encountered a higher copper-equivalent grade than hole RDP22-005. The average with was just a fraction of hole 5 and that’s why we can’t say the higher grade holes are better as grade is only one part of the equation: rapidly building tonnes is an equally important element to reach critical mass and widths of 40-60 meters aren’t that impressive.
A mixed bag (but leaning towards the positive side) as four of the five recently reported holes beat our expectations based on the grade, but lacked some width. But that’s fine considering this was the first drill program completed by the two partners and there’s very little doubt both Pacific Ridge and Antofagasta are excited enough to kick off a 2023 drill program.
It’s a good start of the year for Pacific Ridge, and we expect to see drill results from the flagship Kliyul project to be released soon.
Disclosure: The author has a long position in Pacific Ridge Exploration. Pacific Ridge is a sponsor of the website. Please read our disclaimer.
