Sipa Resources Limited announced that the details of the exploration program at its Paterson North project have been agreed with Rio Tinto Exploration Pty Limited (RTX) as part of the Farm in and Joint Venture Agreement between Sipa and RTX (`Agreement'). The key elements of the program for the 2023 field season include ~1,400m of drilling to test high priority targets previously identified by the parties, and additional heritage surveys to allow access to new areas of interest. Joint planning by Sipa and RTX for the latest drill program incorporated the extensive geophysical and geochemical datasets obtained during the 2022 and previous field seasons, including several known geochemical pathfinders.

Exploration completed in 2022 at Paterson North included a 2,648m Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling program across four prospects, a SkyTEM aerial electromagnetic survey over ~60% of the project area and a gradient array IP survey. A separate heritage survey was also carried out to confirm access points for drill target areas in the forthcoming 2023 program. The drilling budget of ~$1.8M for the 2023 field season has been confirmed between the parties, in accordance with the terms of the Agreement.

RTX Agreement: Under the terms of the Agreement, RTX can earn a 70% interest in the project by sole funding expenditure of $12M (being $6M to earn 55% and a further $6M to earn to 70%) and increase its interest to 80% by sole funding to the earlier of a JORC resource of A$1B in-ground value or the completion of an `Order of Magnitude Study'. Sipa is the current manager of the Paterson North project.