Categories: Precious Metals
Topics: General Precious Metals

Alianza Minerals (TSX-V: ANZ)(OTC: TARSF) CEO Jason Weber on High-Grade Drill Intercepts at 100%-Owned Haldane Silver Project, Yukon… Plus A Lot More!

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the president and CEO of Alianza Minerals — Mr. Jason Weber. Jason, how are you this morning?

Jason Weber: I'm doing well, Gerardo, thanks. And you?

Gerardo Del Real: I'm doing well… thank you for asking. You had some news yesterday that, well, let me start by reading the headline… but it was very technical in nature, and it sounded like the kind of news release or conversation that you would put in a news release if you were talking to a major or a mid-tier. 

And so let me read the headline, and then I'm going to ask for you to break it down for us. The headline reads: 

Alianza Intersects Additional Silver at the West Fault Complex - Extending Mineralization 50 Meters Further to the Northeast at the Haldane Silver Project. 

Now let's get to the actual release. Nine holes now outline two productive fault splays at the West Fault Complex. Six holes completed to-depth intersected breccia/fault/vein zone. And then, I could go on and on and on with the technical stuff. 

No one cares if I say it and explain it, Jason. Break down the details behind the release and the intent here because, again, it did read more technical in nature than previous releases.

Jason Weber: Yeah, and I think, Gerardo, a lot of that just comes from the fact that these are the final two holes of the program. So it's kind of an apt time to summarize what we've accomplished. 

And I think, just to headline that is… if a year ago, you and I had discussed what we might want to find at West Fault in the drilling — because a year ago, we were just starting mobilizing crews to site for the first phase of drilling where we made the Hole-19 discovery with the high-grade over wide width — I would've said three really high-grade intersections surrounded by some modest grades around that would've been a great start. 

We would've been really happy… and that's where we're at.

A year later, we've got three very high-grade hits in excess of 1,000 g/t silver over a meter and greater. And what we're starting to get a feel for now is the direction that the high-grade might be trending in — what the plunge of the system would be — in the fault. 

Because you've got to remember, this is kind of a big fault plane. And as we touch on in the release, there's multiple splays to it now we're discovering. And in that plane, you've got vein material but there's going to be a higher-grade shoot in there. And that's what we're tracing right now. 

And so with the drilling we've done, we know:

• Hole-19; high-grade
• Hole-25; high-grade
• Hole-24; high-grade

And those are trending down-dip and to the southwest. So that's the direction we feel that we have the potential to add silver mineralization to this system. And not just silver but high-grade silver.

And then, this is all complicated by the fact that in Hole-26, we had a very nice vein. It just didn't have a lot of silver in it compared to some of the other intersections nearby. So solid vein, good sulfide in there. But the sulfide was sphalerite, which is zinc rather than galena, which is lead. And that galena tends to have the silver association with it. 

So we don't know what that means. That means that we could step out either direction from Hole-26 and maybe that becomes very much a silver-rich portion of the vein again because we already see it with Hole-19. Hole-26 is 50 meters down-dip. And Hole-25 is 50 meters down-dip of that. And the two bookends on that have high-grade silver. And in between Hole-26, again, beautiful vein… lots of sulfide… but just not the same tenor of grade. 

So lots to figure out here. But we feel we're getting a direction to go. And we're pretty excited about how this target is developing into a really high-grade Keno-style silver vein just like you'd see elsewhere in the district. And we've got a bit of a tiger by the tail here.

Gerardo Del Real: You have to be itching to get back out for the next phase of work. What does that look like, Jason?

Jason Weber: Yeah, we had some funds left over from this program, and we kind of thought maybe we'd go back and try to drill two more holes this fall. I think what we're going to do is just, actually, take a breather here and compile the data. 

One of the things I'd like to do is get this into a 3D model so that we can really look at how the structure in the vein and hybrid mineralization are interplaying with each other to help targeting for next year. 

And we'd like to come back late-spring next year with a big program to follow up not only here at West Fault but go back to Bighorn. We made a discovery there in 2019. We haven't gone back and drilled a hole there yet. 

Gerardo Del Real: Yup!

Jason Weber: So that's a target that we really need to go back to. But we had one of those great situations where we got sidetracked on a really good target at West Fault here.

So that would be the plan is to come back in the spring and do a program that would basically encompass the whole summer with, if we could, we'd try to get multiple drills so we can be drilling more than one target at a time. 

As I said, we did consider trying to go back up there this year. They got six inches of snow in camp earlier this week. And that's sort of the, well, best maybe just to keep our powder dry for the next phase of work next year rather than trying to fight the elements here and get going right now up there at Haldane right now.

Gerardo Del Real: A lot to get to. I know you're busy. There's other projects in the portfolio, obviously, that are asking for your attention as well. What do the next several quarters look like, Jason?

Jason Weber: Yes, so we just finished up a field program at our Klondike Project in southwest Colorado, which is part of our Cloudbreak southwest US copper alliance. So first phase of work there found a new copper showing on the property. So that was great. 

I'm actually going down there late next week to go have a look at Klondike. Going to go to Twin Canyon, which we're very close to getting our drill permit for. We should have that by sometime in October, and we're going to go look at that. Plus some other copper alliance targets that we're looking to put into the portfolio. So it'll be a busy time in Colorado here… while we can… before the snow flies down there. 

And then, we've got results pending from our work that Coeur undertook on our Tim property in the southern Yukon, which is also another high-grade silver target. They're setting that up for drilling next year. We're in the process of putting the permit application in for a drill program there… so there'll be news around that. 

And if we've got any deals that get consummated in the next bit here… we're talking to a number of groups on a number of properties right now. And we're kind of always doing that but right now seems to be an exceptionally busy time for that. We've got a lot of different avenues being looked at right now. So any news that could come out of that would also fill in the news flow between now and the next Haldane program.

But just looking at things, we could be drilling next year at Twin Canyon, at Haldane, and with Coeur at Tim. And then, I think there's a good opportunity that maybe we could see drilling at one of the copper alliance targets next year, too. So that's a lot of prep to get all those projects set up and moved forward for next year. So it'll be busy!

Gerardo Del Real: And on the M&A trail, I have to believe that, given the sentiment in the precious metals space right now, you've always been really, really effective at bringing in very prospective projects. 

I'm pretty opportunistic — for shareholders’, anyway, terms — so I'm looking forward to seeing what the project generation approach yields because it's done well for the company in the past.

Jason Weber: Yeah, and it's really interesting. The copper alliance stuff we're doing in the southwest US, I think there's very good potential that becomes something bigger; a much larger focus. So that'll be really interesting… and then potential, maybe, that morphs into other commodities, too. I think the way that that's unfolding is pretty exciting. 

Yeah, the project generation is a big part of what we do. And it's a lot of fun for us. It's hard work but it's something we really like to do. And if we can generate the next big drill program — that's fantastic for our shareholders.

Gerardo Del Real: Awesome. Jason, thank you so much for the update. I appreciate it!

Jason Weber: Thank you, Gerardo.

Gerardo Del Real: Chat soon and safe travels.

Jason Weber: Yeah, I'm actually looking forward to going to an in-person conference! It’s going to be fantastic!

Gerardo Del Real: That's great! Great catching up, Jason. Thanks again.

Jason Weber: You too. Thanks, Gerardo, take care.