Categories: Precious Metals
Topics: General Precious Metals

Aztec Minerals (TSX-V: AZT) CEO Simon Dyakowski on Completion of First 5 Holes of the 20-Hole Phase 1 Drill Program at the Tombstone Property in Arizona

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the CEO of Aztec Minerals (TSX-V: AZT)(OTC: AZZTF), Mr. Simon Dyakowski. Simon, how are you?

Simon Dyakowski: Hey, Gerardo. I'm doing well. It's a beautiful sunny day here in Vancouver. I'm pleased to be back on with you here, discussing what Aztec has been up to recently.

Gerardo Del Real: It's good to have you back on. The rubber is hitting the road. The first five holes of the Phase 1 drill program on the Tombstone property have been completed. Can we get into the details of those? I know that's a program that is, frankly, years in the making. We're all excited to see if the results match up with some of the prior success, right?

Simon Dyakowski: Yeah, absolutely. We did disclose to the market that we've sent 5 holes to the lab last week. So the first 5 holes, they totaled about 850 meters out of our planned 2,900-meter program. So we're about a third of the way done.

I'll note that as of today that we've actually completed 8 of the 20 holes in terms of the drilling. However, only the first 5 have been sent to the lab. Of the first 5, the 4 holes we talked about were drilled in a spoke pattern in the center of the pit and they did encounter good alteration. As far as we're concerned, it's looking positive for the proof of concept.

We did hit some old workings, which was expected and did encounter some good alteration on the rock outside of the old workings. So far so good, we're pleased with what we're seeing. I would say that the drilling has taken a little bit longer than we had anticipated in August due to rock conditions and some weather down in Arizona, but we're back on track now, not that we were off track, just to give some color to the timing expectations.

We'll have the first 5 holes assayed and results out, hopefully, within the next three weeks. We'll be shipping the next batch of holes over the next week or two as well. So we'll have good continuous results through October and so far so good.

Gerardo Del Real: Tell me about the rocks. You talked a bit about what you're seeing there. You mentioned that 4 holes intersected the old mine workings. That was expected. Always good when you're seeing what you hoped and expected to see, right?

Simon Dyakowski: Yeah, exactly. Good oxidized rock. Obviously, we don't know anything in terms of grade mineralization until we get the assays back. That's typical of any drilling project. So can't comment on that just yet. That'll be out to the market when we know, that'll be disclosed.

The concept was that there's old workings, the old timers were mining. What did they leave and is that mineralized? All indications so far are that what we're drilling into that hasn't been mined, it looks to be mineralized. It's very positive. We're eager to get the results and to continue on with our drill program here.

Gerardo Del Real: You're anticipating assays within the next three weeks, right?

Simon Dyakowski: That's correct, yeah. So assays in the next three weeks. Just to summarize, 4 of the 5 holes were in the old Contention open pit. One of them was an exploration target and the remaining holes that we're going to be drilling, there are two other spoke patterns. There's one to the north of the pit and then one to the south. Then we'll be testing some other exploration targets off of the main Contention Structure. So lots of touch points there.

Gerardo Del Real: Busy rest of the year for you after this 20-hole Phase 1 RC program. What comes next?

Simon Dyakowski: Well, we're working towards vesting our 75% interest. We'll get largely there with this drill program. We'll get the results when we get them. And we'll assess what Phase 2 looks like and how we're going to form a partnership with our option partner on this project. Really the next decision point will be once we get the first few batches of results in, at that point we'll determine next steps.

Gerardo Del Real: Simon, looking forward to having you back on when those numbers start trickling in. Thank you so much for your time. Is there anything else that you'd like to add?

Simon Dyakowski: No, I think that pretty much covers it off. We're grateful for the opportunity to give your listeners an update on our progress at Tombstone.

Gerardo Del Real: Thank you for the time, I appreciate it, Simon. You have a good one out there.

Simon Dyakowski: You too. Thanks a lot.