History
Patriot Gold spent years optioning Nevada and Arizona gold claims, then handed its Moss Mine project to Northern Vertex and exited in 2016 for C$1.5 million plus a 3% royalty.
2003-2010: Optioning ground in Nevada and Arizona
The record opens in July 2003, when Bruce Johnstone resigned and Ronald Blomkamp became President, CEO, CFO and Secretary. In the same week the company closed a $367,500 private placement of 350,000 units at $1.05, each carrying warrants exercisable at prices rising to $1.55. The record then goes quiet until 2008.
That year Patriot Gold became an active buyer of exploration options (rights to earn a property by making payments and spending on it). In February it paid $200,000 for an option on the Margarita Property in Arizona. In March it optioned three Nevada projects from MinQuest: Whiskey Flat, NK and Wheepah. In June it paid $250,000 for an option on the Imperial Property in Nevada. Margarita did not last: in August, six months after paying $200,000, the company terminated the option and lost its stake entirely. In April 2009 it optioned a further Nevada property, 28 patented claims in Nye County, from American International Ventures, paying $30,000 up front against payments rising to a $1.185 million balloon in 2016.
2011-2015: The Moss Mine earn-in
In January 2011 the company terminated all four MinQuest-linked Nevada properties, ending its relationship with MinQuest. In March came the deal that defined the period. Northern Vertex Mining Corp. agreed to earn 70% of Patriot Gold's Moss Mine gold-silver project in Mohave County, Arizona, by paying $500,000 up front and spending $8 million on exploration over five years, after which the two would form a 70/30 joint venture.
By February 2013 Patriot Gold reported Moss Mine development on track, with a Preliminary Economic Assessment due in March and pilot-scale production targeted for the following quarter. Over these years shares on issue rose from about 26.2 million at the end of 2011 to about 48.3 million at the end of 2015. The beats do not describe the raisings behind that increase.
2016 onward: Cash and a royalty
In May 2016 Patriot Gold agreed to sell its remaining 30% working interest in Moss Mine to Northern Vertex's subsidiary Golden Vertex Corp for C$1.5 million, made up of C$1.2 million in cash and C$300,000 in Northern Vertex shares. It kept a 3% net smelter royalty (a share of mine revenue). That was a full exit from its flagship project.
The record since is thin. A new stock option plan covering 9.5 million shares was adopted in 2019. Shares on issue stood at about 68.3 million at the latest year-end count, though the beats do not explain the changes along the way.
Written from the 10 story beats below (2003 to 19 May 2016), which come from the company's own announcements and filings.