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

Aztec Minerals (TSX-V: AZT) CEO Simon Dyakowski on Additional Six Drill Holes from the Tombstone Project in Arizona

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the CEO of Aztec Minerals, Mr. Simon Dyakowski. Simon, how are you today?

Simon Dyakowski: Hey, good afternoon, Gerardo. I'm doing well. Pretty busy day for us here, just put out some news, but thank you for the opportunity to come on and speak with you today.

Gerardo Del Real: No, thanks for taking the time. Let's get right into it. The headline reads, "Aztec Reports Additional Six Drill Holes From the Tombstone Project Including, 1.01 grams per tonne Equivalent Over 48.8 meters," You also staked some additional claims. Can we talk about the results first off?

Simon Dyakowski: Yes. So our long-awaited South Spoke here, we announced today that we have completed the drilling portion of our program. So, we've completed now 21 holes over just shy of 3,000 meters, 2,993 meters. We have five holes still in the Assay Lab pending final results, but obviously the big story of today is we released the results from six holes that we call the South Spoke Pattern.

They were drilled approximately 460 meters south of what we call the central drill pattern, along the contention past producing open-pit gold and silver heap leach mine. The headline hole was 48.8 meters of 1.01 grams per tonne gold equivalent. So we were very encouraged with this result. It shows further bulk tonneage potential, almost a full half kilometer South of the initial area of drilling along this structure. So it's really showing us that the contention structure and the contention past producing pit is open along that entire around 800 meter strike length at this point.

So along with the drill results, we also announced the results of some surface sampling, that we had done West of the contention pit, so we took 75 surface samples and got the assays back for those. And this is in an area that has less well-defined targets than those along the contention open pit, and the headline sample there is the dump sample, but it was one sample that picked up almost 50 grams, 47.2 grams of gold and over 2,800 grams of silver. So this is an area to the West of the open pit. So that, and in fact, it's a little bit closer to where our final five holes are pending in the center of the pit.

Gerardo Del Real: I noticed you staked some more claims, some new ones.

Simon Dyakowski: Yeah. So anytime there's an opportunity to stake claims in and around the Tombstone area, we jump on it. So we found some open claims to the South and they're quite close to the core area of contention where we're working, they are about a half a kilometer away from the South end of the pit. So those help fill in the gaps in our map. And as well, we closed on a previously disclosed acquisition of a just greater than 20 acre parcel of patented private land called Alps and Minnett.

So we closed our 100% purchase of that claim block, which is South of the contention pit, much closer to where we're drilling. And I note that that land is, I'll reiterate that it's private and it's also free of any royalties. So if investors care to look at our map on our website, aztecminerals.com, they would see that it really filled in a bit of a patchwork that we had. So our project now stands at over a thousand acres. So it's gaining some size there and we're looking around to add where we can, as we continue to see success with the drill.

Gerardo Del Real: Excellent. When do you anticipate further assays? I know a lot of the labs with companies that I speak with are just extremely backed up. It seems like Aztec has done a really good job of consistently reporting results. Do you anticipate here in the next couple of weeks, announcing the new results?

Simon Dyakowski: We do. Yes. We are very fortunate in that our project location allowed us to ship samples, perhaps a little differently than some other companies based in Western Canada would. So we have no reason to anticipate delays, and we expect to have our next batch of results out within the next two to three weeks. So shortly from here.

Gerardo Del Real: Excellent. Gold has pulled back a bit copper however, is surging, it's at 348 a pound, flirting with 350. Can we talk Cervantes is the porphyry gold-copper property in Sonora, Mexico. I know that's a project that one I am excited about. And I know it's one that the team is excited about. Can you provide a brief overview there and when we can anticipate the next steps out of Cervantes?

Simon Dyakowski: Absolutely. So, that is still remaining as our core asset in the company. We've been focused at Tombstone, but the company did go public on the much larger Cervantes project in Sonora, which as you pointed out is a gold-copper porphyry target. Aztec has already discovered what looks to be the gold oxide cap to potentially a larger porphyry system. And we should have news on that within the next month as well. We have been diligently working with our partners on the project to finalize the joint venture. So we're hoping to have an announcement out on that to the market soon. And that will then allow us as Aztec 65% owners of the project to proceed with an exploration program next year.

And as you pointed out, copper's hot, Aztec has not tested the deeper porphyry targets yet in any of the exploration, it's been focused on the gold, we will continue to focus on the gold. I mean, we are still believers in the gold story. As you pointed out, gold has pulled back, it seems to be in a new range now of $1,800 plus or minus 25 on either side. But historically, even looking at one, three or five-year charts, gold is hanging in. No long-term trends have been broken, but that's not to say that we don't have some good copper potential at Cervantes. So that will be tested eventually. But I will point out that, the gold story is one that we will be pursuing at both projects, shallow heap leachable oxide gold, it's a premium product when the gold cycle is in full swing.

And although I would argue we're taking a breather right now, I do see 2021 as being a positive year for gold. Outside of headline risks, that of course, is not predictable by anybody. The fundamentals for gold remain strong, global currency debasement is in full force coming out of the coronavirus pandemic. I don't see anything changing there other than the odd, daily sell off due to a vaccine related announcements or what have you. But yeah, I mean, we've good optionality on copper and gold in both of our projects.

Gerardo Del Real: Excellent. Simon a lot to look forward to. Thank you so much for your time. Anything else you'd like to add to that?

Simon Dyakowski: No, just to warn investors to, or not to warn them, but to encourage them to keep an eye out for a few more news releases before the year's out, we've been busy in 2020, and we anticipate being busy in the early part of 2021 as well.

Gerardo Del Real: Excellent. They've been warned. Thank you Simon.

Simon Dyakowski: Thank you.