The morning of January 9th, 2023, Pacific Ridge Exploration (PEX) announced the assay results for the remaining 5 drill holes from their 2022 drill program at the RDP copper-gold project. PEX had previously reported the results for hole RDP-22-005 at the Day Zone, which returned a very significant 497.2m of 0.66% CuEq or 0.96g/t AuEq, including 107.2m of 1.41% CuEq or 2.04g/t AuEq. Holes RDP-22-001 to RDP-22-004 were also drilled at the Day Zone, whereas hole RDP-22-006 was drilled at the Roy Zone. We are maintaining our BUY rating but lowering our target price to $0.55/share from $0.65/share for PEX.

PEX drilled 6 holes for a total of 1,860m at RDP. The first 5 holes were drilled at the Day Zone with the goal of expanding the known mineralized zone. The 6th hole was drilled at the Roy Zone, with the same goal. RDP had not had any drilling done since 2011, so this was PEX’s first ever drill program at the project. As shown in Table 1, the drill results at the Day Zone were very positive. Blaine Monaghan, President & CEO of PEX, stated in their press release that future drilling at RDP will be focused on further expanding the mineralized footprint at the Day Zone, which still remains open in almost every direction.

The company announced on December 19th,2022 that it closed its “bought deal” private placement of flow-through units of the company. PEX sold 18,750,000 FT Units at the price of C$0.32 per FT unit, for aggregate gross proceeds of C$6,000,000.

HISTORIC DRILLING AT RDP:

Day Zone:

19 holes totalling 2,472m had been drilled at Day prior to the 2022 program. Highlights include hole D-74-13 at 0.67% Cu and 0.93g/t Au over 58.8m and hole C-92-14 at 0.54% Cu and 0.69g/t Au over 57m.

Roy Zone:

Trench samples in 1990 returned 0.121% Cu and 0.55g/t Au over 62m within an 80m trench. The only recorded hole was drilled in 2011 and returned 0.11% Cu and 0.64g/t Au over 122.95m.