Patriot Lithium (ASX:PAT) has announced it’s inked a binding option deal to acquire an 80% interest in Array Metals and Natural Resources’ Katawaro Copper Project (KCP).

Array is a company domiciled in Zambia – home to the KCP. On-site acreage boasts a historic open pit which is still accessible, and all cards in order, contains commercial-scale untapped deposits.

Patriot wouldn’t be the first company to have pivoted away from its namesake mineral in tough economic times. Poseidon Nickel earlier this week announced it would start drilling for copper and gold.

But in Patriot’s case, the company pointed towards a “last minute decision from a first nation band” in Canada for stifling its former project, Gorman, now leading it to look at a copper project in Zambia.

“Whilst negotiations to drill at the Gorman lithium project continue, the board has decided to expand its project portfolio into other jurisdictions,” chair Hugh Warner said.

The KCP cover some 400ha under a “small scale mining licence” with exposed copper-bearing host rocks present on-site as well as being known to host sulphide occurrences.

The company will go after those targets first and foremost should activities on-site get underway with an 80% interest locked in; they will also form part of a due diligence assessment to help Patriot decide whether it wants to get serious about setting up shop in Zambia.

Geochemical surveys and surface mapping will form part of the preliminary review.

PAT last traded at 3.7cps.

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