Patriot Battery raises $10.9 million for lithium drilling
Patriot Battery Metals Inc. [PMET-CSE, RGDCF-OTCQB, R9GA] said Tuesday it has raised $10.9 million from a private placement financing, with proceeds earmarked for a drilling at the Corvette – FCI gold-copper-silver-lithium project in the James Bay Region of Quebec.
Patriot shares jumped on the news, rising 13.7% or $0.065 to 54 cents on volume of 878,880. The shares are currently trading in a 52-week range of 80 cents and 19.5 cents.
The private placement consisted of 17.9 million units priced at 61.2 cents per unit. Each unit consists of one flow-through common share and one common share purchase warrant exercisable for two years at 75 cents. In addition to statutory four-month resale restrictions, the flow-through units are subject to a contractual restriction on resale expiring one year from the completion of the offering
The financing announcement comes after the recent release of assay results from the first hole of an inaugural drill program at Corvette-FCI. The first hole (CF21-001) targeted the CV5 Spodumene Pegmatite, which is part of the more than 25-kilometre CV Lithium Trend.
The CV Lithium Trend is an emerging spodumene pegmatite district discovered by the company in 2017 and spans the FCE West, FCE East and Corvette claim blocks. The core area includes an approximate 2.0- kilometre-long corridor, which is part of the more than 25-kilometre-long CV lithium trend.
It consists of numerous spodumene pegmatite occurrences, which include the CV1, CV2, CV3, CV5, CV6, and CV7 pegmatites, highlighted by the CV5 Pegmatite – a large 220-metre long and 20-40 metres wide) well mineralized outcrop.
The 2021 drill program, completed in October, included 15 holes, covering 2,48 metres spread over two prospective trends – the CV Lithium Trend (872 metres over five holes) and the Maven copper-gold-silver Trend (1,177 metres over 10 holes.
Core sample highlights include 0.93% Li2O and 114 ppm Ta2o5 over 146.8 metres (from 26.0 to 172.8 metres), including 1.9% Li2o and 108 ppm Ta2o5 over 73 metres, and 1.04% Li2O and 145 Ta2O5 over 54.6 metres.
Assay results for the remaining drill holes have not yet been received, with all core samples in process at the analytical lab.
Patriot President and director Blair way said the results greatly exceeded the company’s expectations and confirm that it has identified a lithium pegmatite of considerable size and grade potential. He said the lithium mineralization is also accompanied by moderate to strong tantalum mineralization and includes wide intervals of over 100 ppm Ta2O5.
The Corvette-FCI property includes the wholly-owned Corvette claim block and FCI East and West claim blocks held under option from O3 Mining Inc. [O111-TSXV].