Al Alper, Thomas C. Patton, President & CEO, center Nicole Rizgalla, Corporate Communications Manager
When it comes to making significant mineral discoveries in North America, Quaterra Resources Inc. is on the cutting edge. We caught up with Quaterra’s President & CEO Dr. Thomas Patton to get the inside scoop on this exciting junior’s current projects and outlook.
Four properties that have significant resources of copper, moly, silver and uranium take Quaterra’s center stage. According to Patton, “There are ounces of silver in Mexico, pounds of copper in Nevada, and we’ve made two new discoveries out on the Arizona strip: blind uranium retro-pipes using a new geophysical method to see these things that nobody's been able to do before, and we just acquired what I think is one of the best moly prospects in North America.”
It’s all about ownership
Patton stressed that all of Quaterra’s discoveries, with the sole exception of its 50 percent-owned Nieves silver property, are 100 percent owned by the company on reasonable terms and in mining friendly areas. “It's a little bit of a different model, but I think if you bill yourself as being able to find mines -- and it's such a rare event that if you do find one, you want to have that entire impact to accrue to your shareholders -- the last thing you want to do is announce that another major company already has a 70 percent back-in right,” he said. “At least through the initial evaluation stage we like to get 100 percent on reasonable terms, and we like to have that property in what I call a mining-friendly area where we've got good infrastructure, and if you are able to find a mine you could probably build one. I just think that with increasing resource, nationalism, the difficulty in finding new mines and a long lead-time to bring new mines into production -- if we make discoveries, our shareholders will be rewarded.” 
Having already discovered these commodities, Patton pointed out that Quaterra is in the process of completing 43-101 resource estimates for their Nieves Silver property and their MacArthur Copper Oxide property in Nevada. Release of the information is imminent.
Quaterra’s 100 percent-owned molybdenum property in Texas was drilled by Union Carbide in the early '60s. “They drilled 40,000 feet of hole, and some of those holes are really beauties, I mean, high-grade moly,” Patton related, adding, “We know it's there; we just don’t know how big it is.”
Quaterra’s team is experienced in discovering new prospects
Headquartered in Vancouver, B.C., Quaterra Resources has one of the industry's most capable and milestone-driven exploration and management teams.
A geologist with nearly 40 years of experience, Dr. Patton has worked in the exploration industry with some of the biggest names in town, including Exxon, Kennecott and Rio Tinto. “I joined Western Silver – which was then Western Copper – in 1998 and was with Western through our successful sale of the company to Glamis Gold Ltd. I mean, they were actually interested in our Peñasquito property in Mexico, which our team is extremely proud of. It's going to be the biggest mine in Mexico: 13 million ounces of gold and over a billion ounces of silver and lots of lead and zinc. So, it was a huge victory for our team.”
A spin-off company, Western Copper was created after the sale, and along with the engineers, Dale Corman, Chairman of Western Silver, went with the spin-off company to develop the Carmacks Oxide Copper property in the Yukon. Meanwhile, Patton and most of Western Copper’s exploration geologists moved to Quaterra.
“That was in 2006, and we decided to style ourselves as a North American exploration company. We started to accumulate properties and develop what we call ‘a pipeline of opportunities’ from each one of our geologists; they have their own trap line. We decided to go for a diversified portfolio, looking for big and/or high-grade deposits of base metals, precious metals and uranium in Mexico, Canada and the United States. Right now we've put together a great team and a great group of properties.”
Tom Turner, Consulting Exploration Geologist, runs all of Quaterra’s Mexican operations. According to Patton, Turner was a consultant to Western Silver Corporation and was a key player in the Peñasquito discovery… and that’s not all: “He found the Cerro Blanco hot spring gold deposits that Gold Corp is developing in Guatemala,” Patton noted. For the past eleven years, Turner has worked exclusively in Mexico and Central America, but his work experience reaches from Alaska to Ecuador and includes management of exploration projects for a variety of precious and base metal mineral systems.
Director Eugene Spiering, VP Exploration, has nearly 30 years of experience in the mining exploration industry. According to Patton, Spiering “spent 14 years in Spain and put together the portfolio that the Lundin Group bought from Rio Narcea for $750 million.” Formerly a senior geologist with Energy Fuels Nuclear, Inc., he is credited with discovering all seven uranium retro types in the Energy Fuels Mine from 1980 to 1990 in northern Arizona. He also has a wealth of experience in gold exploration in western US and Venezuela.
Prior to becoming a consulting geophysicist for Quaterra, Joe Inman was Director of Technical Support and Services at Kennecott Exploration. “Joe was a key player in Rio Tinto’s diamond discovery and also played a key role in Peñasquito,” said Patton, noting, “We worked very hard to beef up our board of directors.”
Formerly CFO at Kennecott when Patton ran exploration there, CEO Tracy Stevenson came on board in July 2007. “Tracy has a world of experience in finances and accounting, so he's a key member,” said Patton. Stevenson also worked for Rio Tinto and has held senior leadership positions in other major companies during his 26-year career in the mining industry.
Director Roy Wilkes has taken part in many developing mining projects throughout the world, including Latin America, Canada, Europe and the United States. Having recently retired as president of The Washington Group International's Mining Business Unit, Patton pointed out that Wilkes’ endless contacts and vast experience in the mining industry makes him a valuable asset to Quaterra.
It’s all about timing
With depressed commodity share prices, Patton pointed out that Quaterra shares can currently be bought for the same price as in 2006. “That was before we had advanced any of these properties, and quite frankly, I think that people do not realize how long it takes for a new mine to come into production. So, I don't think the world is going to stop turning, and I think because of the long lead times and the scarcity of new discoveries as we move these properties forward, it's going to create great value for our shareholders. This is a great time to get involved.” 
Quaterra Resources Inc. Corporate Information:
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