Categories: Base Metals / General Market Commentary / Precious Metals
Topics: General Base Metals / General Market Commentary / General Precious Metals

Alianza Minerals (TSX-V: ANZ) CEO Jason Weber on Conference Circuit Sentiment, Option Agreement with Coeur at the Tim Silver-Lead-Zinc Property, & Upcoming Drill Programs at Horsethief Gold Propety and Haldane Silver Project

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the President and CEO of Alianza Minerals (TSX-V: ANZ)(OTC: TARSF), Mr. Jason Weber. Jason, how are you this afternoon?

Jason Weber: Doing very well, Gerardo. Thanks very much.

Gerardo Del Real: We just got done with what seemed like endless days of conferencing. Right? And I know that Roundup specifically was one that you were looking forward to. 

I want to talk about the recent news, which of course was the signing of the option agreement with Coeur to explore the Tim high-grade silver-lead-zinc property in the Yukon. 

But before I get the details of that, I would love to hear your feedback on the conference circuit in general and just how you felt coming out of it.

Jason Weber: Well, we had three in a row basically here in Vancouver with the MIF [Metals Investor Forum], the Vancouver Resource Investment Conference and then Roundup to sort of cap it all off. Roundup being very much more of a technical conference than the other two. The first two are more investor sort of oriented. 

So for me, that technical conference was one that I was really prepped for, a couple of different reasons. One is it gives me an opportunity to showcase and talk about some of the projects that we have in our portfolio that we don't normally talk about in public. Say like when I'm on with you or anyone else, these are the projects that we're trying to bring along and develop and find partners to further advance. I had a couple of days at a table with just a bunch of these different projects laid out for people to come and talk about, interested in, see if they want to look at them in more detail. So that was fantastic.

Then we also gave a talk on our Haldane silver project that we did some drilling on last year, made a new discovery at the Bighorn zone. Got to show some of that core plus some of the drill core from the Middlecoff. So that was really a good opportunity for us to showcase Haldane and just talk about what we're doing up there. 

It was a great, great few days. The vibe coming out of it was very positive. Lots of interest from the bigger companies, the producers. I think it's a really good start to the year to get a feel for where things might be going. And certainly as I said, the vibe was positive.

Gerardo Del Real: So you definitely saw a pickup in interest as far as secondary projects in the portfolio go?

Jason Weber: Yeah. And I think that's just people being those that other companies, the bigger companies, who were looking for new projects probably feel like they've got a bit more of a mandate to find new projects. So nstead of just looking for the big projects that may have a bunch of drill holes, or maybe even a resource, they start moving down the chain. And maybe they're not quite ready yet to start doing deals in the early-stage projects. But they're certainly starting to look at which ones they might be interested in doing deals on a when that time comes. So they're starting to just sort of get their portfolio together of the projects that they want to look at.

Gerardo Del Real: Let's talk about Tim because that is a property that has attracted the attention of Coeur. Of course, Tim is a Silvertip analog. I can't think, frankly, of a better partner to have on that property. 

Can we talk about the details of the agreement? I know that you had a Letter of Intent. It's always great to sign those, but it's even better to get it across the finish line. Right?

Jason Weber: Yeah, of course. I think for us, the big motivating factor is, and I really got to see this at Roundup. I spoke on Haldane and then the next talk right after mine was on the Silvertip mine.

Gerardo Del Real: Right.

Jason Weber: And so they talked about some of the exploration that they've been doing on the Silvertip mine property and some of the new finds they're making and just sort of applying their knowledge. And I just couldn't help thinking, wow, they're going to get to apply this same thing at Tim. It's going to be fantastic. 

It is really the ideal partner for us. And so we were pretty excited to get that signed and now we can look forward to them being on the ground and advancing that this summer.

Gerardo Del Real: I mentioned that Tim looks to be a Silvertip analog. For those not familiar, can you provide a bit of background on both frankly, Silvertip and the Tim property?

Jason Weber: Yeah, so Silvertip and Tim are what we call Carbonate Replacement Mineralization deposits. These are silver-lead-rich deposits and they've been known about since the '80s in this part of the world. In fact, Tim and what was called Midway at the time were two targets that had sort of been developed and they were trying to decide between which ones to drill. They ended up drilling Midway and, of course, that led to the discovery of the mine. So probably that was a good call there. 

But the two deposits are very, very similar in the Carbonate Replacement Mineralization that's very, very silver rich. And you're looking for specific horizons in the geology where these deposits occur. And that was the neat thing about the talk that Coeur gave was that they've got some very good techniques for following that geology and just exactly applicable for the exploration of our property.

Gerardo Del Real: Excellent. And so I understand that detailed mapping – according to the release – trenching and soils program for 2020. When can we expect that to commence?

Jason Weber: Well, it was funny, we just had a short conversation about the work program and what they'd like to do. It really depends on snow. Once the snow is gone, they can get in there and start remapping and starting to get a good handle on the geology and their interpretation of it at Tim. 

So you're probably looking at May, maybe April, depending on the snow conditions. There's only a little bit of road rehab that we'll do prior to that, just so that they can gain access to the project. But the real work probably won't start until May.

Gerardo Del Real: Excellent. And I understand that Coeur and earn up to 80% interest by funding what, $3.5 million over 5 years. Is that accurate?

Jason Weber: Yeah. So they fund that $3.55 million exploration over 5 years. They make cash payments to us that will total in the neighborhood of $575,000 over 8 years. And in that time period, they also must do a feasibility study and basically say to us that they're going to develop a commercial mine on the property. That has to be done by the eighth anniversary of the agreement. 

That sounds like maybe a bit of a tight timeline, but because we're only 12 kilometers away from the Silvertip deposit, really, there's no infrastructure to be built here other than maybe upgrading the road back to Silvertip. I think any production that would come from Tim, you would just truck over to the mine site at Silvertip. So the timing I think for us could be much, much quicker than what you'd normally see in exploration and then development of an early-stage project.

Gerardo Del Real: So bottom line is you're going to test it, you're going to figure out if it works or not. And if it does, it could become a satellite deposit for them.

Jason Weber: Yeah, exactly. What I think one of the really encouraging signs is the old trenches that were done in the '80s, it's really high grades, 350 grams silver, 9% lead over 4 meters. And with additional trenches 200 meters on either side of that had mineralization as well. What's different I think is the interpretation of the geology and just where this mineralization might be going. 

I think that's the expertise the Coeur guys will bring to the table on that. So one of the first things they'll want to do, I think, is open up some of these old trenches. They're there. You can see them on Google Earth. It's easy to locate them, get back in there, excavate them out a bit, remap them and get a good handle on what's going on. So I think that's one of the first things that'll get done.

Gerardo Del Real: You also have drilling in the second or third quarter depending on the weather, if I remember correctly. Is that correct?

Jason Weber: Well yeah. So this year we should have two drill programs going. The first one at our Horsethief project in Southeast Nevada with our partner Hochschild Mining. We met with them last week as well just to talk about a potential drill hole location. So we're just putting that together right now, a proposal of what we think we should drill with. Probably sort of 2,500 meter, reverse circulation drilling program. That, as you said, will start soon as soon as we can get good access onto the ground. So hopefully that's April, maybe sooner, depending on the weather. I don't think it's been a terribly big snow year, but it's been quite cold in that part of Nevada. So we'll see what happens. 

And then that will be followed up by drilling at Haldane again, now once we get into the main part of the summer. And follow up on the new discovery of Bighorn and then some more drilling at Middlecoff and perhaps back at the Ross anomaly as well.

Gerardo Del Real: It's a lot of activity for a company that has a market cap of sub-$4 million, if I'm not mistaken, Canadian. Is that correct? Is that still where it's at?

Jason Weber: Yeah. Yeah. Today it is. Yeah, for sure. It goes off a little bit today and we're seeing our share price down a little bit, but I can't get hung up on that. The market will come down to the companies of our level, especially with the amount of work we're doing. I can't see our share price staying where it is. So it should be an exciting year for us and we'll see that share price move up.

Gerardo Del Real: Jason, thank you for the update. Appreciate it as always, and we'll be chatting soon. Thanks so much.

Jason Weber: Thank you very much, Gerardo.