Patriot Resources has announced the hiring of Dominic Duggan as managing director to drive growth at the company’s Tassa silver project in Peru.
Duggan, who is already the company’s chief executive officer, is a mining engineer and finance professional with more than 10 years of experience across multi-commodity underground and open-pit operations, including at Rio Tinto.
The seasoned operative holds degrees in mining engineering and commerce from the University of NSW, as well as a WA Site Senior Executive statutory qualification.
The board believe Duggan’s technical, operational and financial expertise will provide Patriot with the solid leadership qualities to drive the company through the next phase of development at Tassa. His skills should also prove useful as it presses ahead with exploration work at the company's Kitumba copper project in Zambia and its Gorman lithium project in Canada.
Patriot Resources chairman Hugh Warner said: “His operational experience across large scale mining operations, combined with his financial expertise, positions him well to lead the development of the high grade Tassa silver and gold project in Peru. Dom has already established strong relationships with our in-country teams and local stakeholders, including the Tassa community, which will be critical to the project’s success.”
Patriot recently took full ownership of the high-grade and silver-dominant Tassa project in southern Peru, which hosts an inferred JORC resource of 18.53 million tonnes grading 52.68 grams per tonne (g/t) silver containing 31.39 million ounces of silver equivalent.
Earlier impressive drill hits included 60m at 224.2g/t from 24m featuring a 16-metre slice at 383.9g/t silver and a 24-metre section at 291g/t silver.
A second hole at depth came up trumps with 37m at 113.5g/t silver and 1.5g/t gold, whilst a third intercept pulled up 16m at 152.9g/t silver with the welcome addition of a 6-metre slice grading 2.55g/t gold.
Notably, the resource stretches over a 2.8-kilometre structural trend that has only been lightly drilled and, tantalisingly, may indicate a much larger epithermal system lurking beneath. Mineralisation begins at the surface and remains open in all directions, allowing for multiple low-strip, low-cost development options.
The project’s high-grade S2 zone, averaging 102g/t silver equivalent, is the company’s priority focus for the next round of drilling. It remains open at depth and along strike.
Patriot recently ticked important metallurgical boxes at Tassa, including confirmation that the resource appears highly amenable to silver recovery via conventional processing with recoveries averaging 85.05 per cent. The company has now engaged Northern Metallurgy in Queensland to undertake an independent review of those earlier test results to provide the necessary validation to build confidence in the data as the project advances.
Whilst in its infancy, the prospect demonstrates many of the attributes of a potential large-scale development. The mineralisation from surface, potential low strip ratio and early positive metallurgy, along with the resource being open at depth and along strike, add to the flavour.
As silver prices continue to boom and with a new skipper at the helm, along with a growing stack of technical runs on the board, Patriot looks to be shifting gears from promising explorer to serious project builder. If Duggan can convert Tassa’s early high-grade hints into a larger, mineable inventory, the company may well carve out a meaningful position in the silver space.
And with multiple growth levers still in play across Peru, Zambia and Canada, Patriot’s story could be only just getting started.
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By Murray Ward
