I spent some time wrapping my head around the activities Pacific Empire Minerals Corp. (TSXV:PEMC) has planned for 2018 following their "Listing Day" today and I'm stunned. The company raised approximately $1.8M over 5 years as private company, with the largest amounts coming from Rick Rule & his Exploration Capital 2012 LP, and has now raised $2M in their IPO. PEMC is off to the races with 10 properties focused on gold-rich copper deposits in BC. Read on as I discuss them each in turn.

Study the PEMC website closely enough and you will see that there 8 of the 10 projects have clear work programs planned for 2018. The 2 projects that don't have clear plans make sense, anyway. One is Tak, a remote property that has been known since the 1960s, and the other one is Majaz, which is a copper-molybdenum porphyry not a copper-gold one.

Before briefly reviewing the 8 active properties in the PEMC pipeline, allow me to point out that the company commissioned a customized RC drill for hard-to-reach places. The prospectus estimates the cost at approximately $233,000. Combined with portable XRF guns, PEMC could be an exploration machine -- a prospect generator who drills! 

First up is the Wildcat, which was their listing property. It's had lots of work done since the 1980s, but PEMC did an IP survey in 2017 that identified a strong chargeability high in an area that hadn't been drilled before. That's not worth much on it's own, but they had enough other data to give them some conviction that it was a prospective target. In fact, they describe a possible drill plan for the Wildcat project in this slide from the deck they used during the prospectus offering.

Look closer at that plan view map and you'll see 15 marks. Seriously, they are talking about drilling 15 holes into this one project in one year. For comparison, Cayden Resources drilled 6 holes here back in 2011. How can PEMC manage it? Their customized RC drill!

What's more, Wildcat is accessible as it surrounds the road to the Mt. Miligan mine. Forestry at site recently exposed outcrop that has the PEMC geologists excited, too. Watch for them to start the 2018 field season with a bang! And it could be prove to be a long season, too, as PEMC believes they can drill year-round in BC with their customized rig.

While that would be enough for some juniors, it's not enough for Brad Peters & Rory Ritchie. They are driven to "Always be drilling," which is a great goal for a prospect generator.

Next project to consider is the Red JV with En Gold Mines (TSXV:EGM). This has several interesting stories from the geochemical surveys of bark to how PEMC got the JV in the first place.

En Gold Mines had a land package called the Lac La Hache Property that was quite nice, but missing one claim in the middle. PEMC noticed that oversight in 2015 and staked it. Now, that wasn't a big deal until En Gold had some joy nearby and took an interest in the PEMC claim. Ultimately, the two negotiated a JV on 5 claims. Keep in mind that PEMC was a private company when it was doing all this, which I like even more.

The Red JV is highly prospective with an IP chargeability high anomaly that coincides with resistivity, magnetic and copper-in-soil anomalies. There is limited outcrop, but two grab samples recently collected ran 2.9% Cu, 0.03 g/t Au, 7.45 g/t Ag and 1.8% Cu, 0.21 g/t Au, 12.9 g/t Ag with pyrite-chalcopyrite mineralization in fractured, propylitically-altered volcanic rocks. A good start!

Oh, don't forget -- PEMC plans to drill the Red JV in 2018.

I will briefly mention the Stars project, which PEMC owns half of under a JV with Divitiae. PEMC optioned part of it's stake to ML Gold in a deal that is alive as ML Gold is making major progress finding the center of a porphyry system that has been known for some time. The recent drill hole with +200 meters of 0.5% copper equivalent grades was encouraging for everyone involved. If ML Gold completes the option, then it turns into a JV for PEMC and things get interesting. Could this prove to be a leading project in the PEMC pipeline over the years ahead?

Next up, the Kitimat Project is owned 100% by PEMC and has been subject to extensive historical work. PEMC did field work in 2017 that has led them to plan drilling Kitimat in 2018. Watch for news from Kitimat, as I suspect this may prove to be a great example of the PEMC "value advantage" where they focus on RC drilling and providing projects to partners, both of which are ahead at Kitimat.

The Copper King looks like an absolute screamer as PEMC is planning to follow-up on a shallow hole drilled in 1975 that encountered magnetite and hematite throughout with intervals of native copper, bornite and chalcocite. The flashy samples are one thing, but this may prove to be an example of the PEMC RC drill getting into places that were otherwise difficult to access for core drilling, which is a key selling part of the PEMC value advantage I mentioned just before.

The PEMC Pinnacle Reef Property or Later Property was part of the first major land package PEMC ever put together, back when the company was private. The property has now seen over $2 million in partner-funded exploration since 2014. It's currently optioned to ML Gold, as with Stars, and is serving them well.

PEMC owns 50% of the Hogem JV property with Divitiae Resources, as with Stars. The Hogem property looks like it's in a tough location in the mountains, but it has compelling a geological story with glaciation driving copper-in-soil anomalies. PEMC is planning to complete a small RC drill program there this year, which would be a full season's work for some juniors but is just another drop in the bucket for PEMC.

Finally, my personal favourite project is the Nub East Property. I don’t quite understand the geological story here yet, but it reminds me of something that saw recently from Quinton Hennigh and NV Gold (TSXV:NVX) concerning their ATV project that is across the valley from the Twin Creeks Mine in Nevada. I look forward to getting the full story from Mr. Rory Ritchie, VP of Exploration for PEMC.

PEMC is one to watch! The "prospect generator" niche is getting crowded with many projects on offer and few buyers at the moment, but the PEMC team seems to be driven by tough lessons they learned as a private company where majors told them "Always be drilling." Sounds like great advice for all of us, doesn’t it?

I was not compensated to write this. This is not investment advice.