Patronus Resources has a broad future and a commitment to mining, exploration, and ultimately mining. We have the leadership, experience, and technical capability to take our projects from exploration through to production while continuing to create value through smart deals and disciplined execution. Just over 12 months ago, we progressed a merger with PNX Metals and changed our name from Kin Mining Nl to Patronus Resources with the ASX code PTN. We're a diversified resources company with a pipeline of exploration assets in gold, uranium, silver, and base metals in Western Australia and the Northern Territory. We're also strategic investors and continue to focus on what we see to be undervalued opportunities. We are not only after corporate outcomes; we're actively exploring with ambitions to mine what we find. Over the past year, we've deliberately reshaped Patronus into something bigger, stronger, and more future-facing.
The merger with PNX Metals was a turning point. It gave us scale in the Northern Territory and marked a new chapter for the company. The rebrand to Patronus was not just a cosmetic change; it signaled our commitment to a bigger and bolder strategy. Today, Patronus Resources is a multi-commodity, multi-project company operating in Tier 1 jurisdictions. That said, gold is at our core, represents an immediate opportunity, and it is the heart of our growth strategy. Our goal is simple: build a business with scale, quality, and optionality. We are achieving that through strong technical work, disciplined capital management, and a focus on opportunities that can create real value for shareholders. Why Patronus? What makes us stand out in a crowded junior space? Firstly, it is our balance sheet. At 30 September, we held around AUD 78 million in cash and liquid investments, putting us amongst the best-funded juniors on the ASX.
This gives us flexibility to explore and develop our projects as well as pursue new opportunities without needing to come back to the market. Second is our track record. We've shown we can act decisively, whether that's the PNX merger or taking strategic stakes in companies like Aurumin, Brightstar, Emerson, and Matsa. We know how to identify undervalued opportunities and unlock value. Third is our approach. We're known for being proactive. We look for opportunities, we act quickly, and we back ourselves to create value. It means that we're seen as an active participant in the sector, and that's why good opportunities often come our way. Finally, and most importantly, our team's exploration expertise. We've got a track record of making discoveries, of growing resources, and of doing the hard technical work that turns targets into real projects.
That capability underpins everything we do and gives credibility to the growth story we are building. Patronus is fortunate to have two genuine growth engines. In Western Australia, we have the Cardinia Gold Project in the Leonora District, a gold hub with proven resources, infrastructure, and strong upside potential. In the Northern Territory, we have the Pine Creek Belt, a vast underexplored province with scale across gold, uranium, and base metals. These two regions give us balance. WA offers near-term development optionality and resource growth, while the NT provides long-term scale and discovery upside in a world-class mineral province. One of the real strengths of Patronus is our people. We have a highly experienced and well-balanced board and management team that brings together deep technical expertise, commercial acumen, and operational know-how.
Our Chairman, Rowan Johnston, is a mining engineer with decades of experience leading successful ASX-listed companies and overseeing project development and turnarounds, most recently as Chair of Spartan Resources. Supporting him, our Non-Executive Directors have diverse skill sets, including Hansjoerg Plaggemars with an international corporate governance and finance background and our major shareholders' representative, Joe Graziano, a chartered accountant who brings strength in compliance, finance, and corporate strategy. As part of the PNX merger, we also welcomed Graham Ascough, a seasoned geophysicist and resources executive to the board. On the management side, our CFO and Company Secretary, Stephen Jones, has more than 25 years in finance, feasibility, and permitting. Chief Geologist Leah Moore has 15 years of multi-commodity experience, most recently helping grow Bellevue Gold's resource base from one- three million oz. She is backed by our Exploration Managers, Ria Brabham in Western Australia and Jed Williams in the Northern Territory.
Of course, myself as Managing Director, I'm a geologist with over 25 years of experience across exploration, development, and corporate transactions. Together, we've assembled a team that's done this before: discovery, development, and delivery. With that foundation in place, the strategy, the funding, and the team, let's take a little closer look at our projects themselves. In Western Australia's Leonora District, our flagship is the Cardinia Gold Project, comprising the Mertondale and Cardinia East deposits. It's a one-million-ounce open pittable resource sitting right in the heart of a world-class gold camp. We're surrounded by mills, infrastructure, and potential partners. That gives us multiple pathways for a potential development, whether as a standalone project or through toll treatment. Earlier this year, we upgraded the Mertondale resource. The updated model delivered a nearly 20% increase in grade to 1.4 grams per ton and a 30% lift in indicated ounces.
We now have more than 300,000 oz in that higher confidence category. Over 60% of the total resource is now indicated, which significantly de-risks this project. We have also recently completed additional metallurgical drilling at selected deposits at Mertondale. While we are still waiting for the test results, pleasingly, the drilling has confirmed the robustness of the existing resource, with results including 19 m at nearly 3 g per ton from 32 m, 11 m at nearly 8 g per ton from 89, 20 m at nearly 2 g from 33, to name a few. The upgraded resources in Mertondale and those at Cardinia East are the foundation of our current Cardinia Gold Project scoping study. What is just as important is what we are seeing beyond the defined pits where exploration continues to deliver.
We have significant exploration targets at both Koi and Merlin, and recent drilling along this Mertondale trend has confirmed broad continuous gold zones, including 13 m at nearly 4 g from 28 m, 24 m at over 1 g from 60 m, and 10 m at 2 g from 94 m. Mineralisation now extends to more than 1.5 km along trend from existing resources and remains open at depth and along strike. From a greenfields exploration perspective, the Cardinia East Project continues to deliver new targets. Guppy, just 5 km south of Cardinia East, followed up RC drilling has returned results including 13 m at 2 g and 5 m at 1.8. These results confirm another fertile structure within the broader Cardinia trend and represents early discovery potential feeding our growth pipeline.
It's exactly the kind of incremental discovery that builds project scale, enhances optionality, and positions us for development success. Together, Cardinia, Mertondale, and Guppy define a strong growth corridor that will continue to expand as drilling progresses through 2026. Turning to the Northern Territory, the Pine Creek Orogen is one of the most underexplored yet richly endowed mineral provinces in Australia. It has a 20 million oz gold endowment. It's also one of the world's great uranium belts and a proven district for base metals, particularly volcanogenic massive sulfide or VMS deposits. We now hold belt-scale tenure across Pine Creek, applying modern exploration techniques to ground that in many cases hasn't seen systematic work in over three decades. In the NT , we've made the decision to adopt a back-to-basics exploration approach, integrating new data sets to define the next generation of exploration targets.
A key initiative we've undertaken is the first belt-scale lag and soil geochemistry program ever conducted across our NT tenure. We now have more than 4,000 samples collected on a 400-by-400-m grid. We're seeing some really exciting results and have defined kilometre-scale anomalies across several key areas. By combining these latest geochemical results with new structural models and geophysics, we're building a pipeline of fresh, high-quality regional targets that simply haven't been tested before. We've already commenced infill sampling across a number of targets, and permitting and planning for the 2026 field season is well underway. We have existing gold resources in the NT, including some 300,000 oz in potentially open pittable resources at Fountain Head, Glencoe, and Mount Porter. These are shallow deposits, which means they can be expanded quickly and efficiently with further drilling.
Mineralisation remains open along strike and at depth, giving us confidence that there is plenty of room to grow beyond the current resource base. Fountain Head, in particular, is compelling because it comes with mining and processing approvals already in place. That is a huge head start in terms of optionality. We know we can develop if and when we choose, but just as importantly as clear exploration upside. The system remains open with shallow high-grade hits and immediate expansion potential around Fountainhead and Tally Ho. It is not just a permitted project. It is a platform we can grow while keeping the fast-track development option on the table. I would just like to touch briefly on our other NT projects. On the uranium front, we have Thunderball, a high-grade discovery in a district that has produced globally significant deposits like Ranger and Jabiluka.
Historic drilling at Thunderball has already returned spectacular grades, such as 10 m at 2.5% uranium oxide and 13 m at 0.7% uranium oxide. This year's diamond drilling program has built on that with intercepts including 0.6 m at 6.5% uranium oxide and 6.8 m at 0.4% uranium oxide, confirming both the high-grade nature of this deposit and continuity. It's worth noting our highest-grade samples from this program are currently at ANSTO for assay, as they were too rich for processing in a commercial laboratory, and we look forward to releasing those results when they're available. Most importantly, the work that we have done has demonstrated that Thunderball is likely to be a proterozoic unconformity style system. The importance of this is that this style of mineralization is the same as some of the world's largest and highest-grade uranium mines.
This represents a step change in our understanding and positions Thunderball as a cornerstone discovery with a district-scale uranium opportunity. However, given the strength of the uranium market and global focus on nuclear energy, we are now actively assessing partnership and transaction options to accelerate its advancement, and this will allow us to focus on our gold and base metal projects in Western Australia and the NT . Of course, base metals at Hayes Creek, we already have a global resource of some 200,000 ton of zinc, 16 million oz of silver with potential for significant gold and other base metal credits, and more than 40 km of prospective stratigraphy ahead of us to test. The Northern Territory is about scale. It's about optionality. It's about building the next generation of projects in a proven district. Alongside our own projects, we also invest strategically in others.
We target undervalued juniors with strong ground positions or complementary opportunities. We take meaningful stakes. We support management, and we bring our technical and commercial expertise to the table if needed. For shareholders, this approach builds optionality. It gives exposure to a broader pipeline of discoveries. It creates leverage. If our investees succeed, Patronus shareholders succeed alongside them. This strategy has already paid dividends. We back companies like Genesis, Brightstar, Emerson, and Matsa, all of which have grown. Why should investors be looking at Patronus right now? First, the macro backdrop. Gold is in demand as a safe haven asset. Uranium is seeing a renaissance as a clean, reliable energy source, and there is renewed interest in base metals, which are also critical for the energy transition. Second is the leverage. Patronus offers exposure to gold as well as uranium, silver, and base metals.
Few juniors can offer that kind of commodity diversity. Third, the platform. We have more than 2.4 million oz in gold and gold equivalents across WA and the NT. We have high-grade uranium and base metal resources with serious growth potential. Crucially, we have the balance sheet to fund exploration, project development, and opportunistic acquisitions without needing to come back to market. The next 12-1 8 months are packed with activity. Drilling at new discoveries at Cardinia and Mertondale, development studies at Cardinia, final results from the Thunderball uranium program, additional assays from the Pine Creek regional sampling program, and multiple drilling programs planned for 2026 in both WA and the NT. That means strong news flow and multiple points for value uplift. The timing is right, the platform is in place, and the opportunity is clear.
I hope you now have a better knowledge and understanding of Patronus Resources. I'm joined here today by my colleagues, Rowan, Leah, and Steph, so please drop by our booth if you have any further questions. Thank you.