Patronus Resources (ASX: PTN) is accelerating exploration across the Pine Creek project in the Northern Territory, with ongoing work confirming, expanding and refining multiple high-priority gold anomalies.

The company has two reverse circulation (RC) drill rigs continuing to test priority targets, while a diamond drill rig has been mobilised to speed up drill testing across its 1,500 sq. km landholding.

The expanded program follows Patronus’ success in identifying and refining several high-priority gold anomalies. The work has confirmed and expanded multiple kilometre-scale gold anomalies, including Hydra and Medusa, while also defining the new Golden Wall target adjacent to the more than one million-ounce Cosmo–Howley trend.

Managing director John Ingram said drilling continues to strengthen the company’s growing inventory of priority drill targets and support the systematic advancement of exploration across the Pine Creek project.

“These results continue to demonstrate that Pine Creek is evolving into a district-scale gold opportunity, with multiple kilometre-scale gold systems emerging across the project rather than reliance on a single prospect,” Mr Ingram said.

“Importantly, only a small proportion of our tenure has been drill tested, and we believe Pine Creek remains significantly under-explored with considerable discovery potential. Each phase of exploration strengthens our understanding of the project and reinforces our confidence in the district-scale potential of Pine Creek.

“With this year’s exploration program now in full swing – including two RC drill rigs currently operating and a recently mobilised diamond drill rig – we look forward to reporting results from both drilling and regional exploration as they become available over the coming months.”

Patronus’ 2026 surface sampling program includes 3,032 planned lag sampling locations and is designed to systematically advance priority targets across the Pine Creek project.

The program includes infill sampling on a nominal 100m by 400m grid to refine previously identified gold anomalies, along with first-pass sampling at the Jessops prospect following wet season access constraints during the 2025 program.

Assay results have now been received for 1,782 samples from Burnside North and the Cosmo area, confirming and expanding several kilometre-scale gold anomalies identified during the 2025 program. With multiple rigs now active and regional sampling still underway, the company’s next updates are likely to focus on how the current drill and assay results further define the scale and continuity of these targets across the broader tenure.

PTN was steady at 4.4 cents, with a market capitalisation of $64.67 million prior to market opening.

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