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

Golden Arrow Resources (TSX-V: GRG)(OTC: GARWF) VP Brian McEwen on Assays Pending on Potentially Game Changing Drilling

 

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the VP of Exploration and Development for Golden Arrow Resources, Mr. Brian McEwen. Brian, it's been a bit, it's great to have you back on. How are you today?

Brian McEwen: Hi, Gerardo. I'm doing fine. It's great to be back talking to you.

Gerardo Del Real: Well, listen, you just announced results from your first exploration target at the San Pietro IOCG project in Chile. And there's a quote in the release, we'll get to the numbers in a bit, but you mention in there that the numbers have game-changing potential, specifically the higher grade gold that you weren't anticipating. I know there were quite a few positive surprises here from the results. So, I'll read the headline. The headline reads:

“Gold Arrow Drills 34 Meters of 0.41% Copper 466g/t Cobalt.”

Let's get right into the numbers, what they mean, why you're happy with them, and the potential for some game-changing mineralization here at the end of that one hole.

Brian McEwen: Yeah. Gerardo, just if I could give a little bit more of an overview, back it up a little bit. When we purchased the program last year, we inherited a lot of data, big property, 185 square kilometers, 18,000 hectares. And I mean, I was blown away when I went there and it was just so big and it takes a whole day to drive from one side of the property or the other. And so when we started looking at the data, there was these several different targets. There was an area that was called Rincones, which is right next to Santo Domingo, where Capstone's developing their mind. There was an area to the south, Colla and all these different targets, and we went in, we looked at it. And there was a lot of pressure from different people and outside things, "You got to drill it, you got to drill it.” 

And I pushed back, I said, "We don't want to go in here and just drill it. We're not going to continue doing what Sumitomo had done." They'd been drilling it 10 years before. We need to understand the project. And so we stood back and we worked through several months of remapping the ground and sampling and going through the drill core, and then came up with a plan where we're going to drill a number of holes in each of the areas. And that's the way we set up our phase one drill program. And we are just starting to get the results and we finished the program, I don't know, three weeks ago. And of the 4,000 meters we drilled, we're just starting to get them back.

And so each one had a different objective. And in Colla, the one to the south, the one that we drilled first, our objective there was to see if we could trace this very thick band of specularite where you get a lot of the ore happening. Specifically in that area, we get a lot of the cobalt. So, we wanted to go in there and drill these holes so they were widely spaced. And lo and behold, we traced this over the whole length of the drilling program. So, we had one and a half kilometers of that, that was spaced far apart. And we can actually project that way far to the north. So, we think that's a strong structure that could host good mineralization for quite a distance. And that changes things because all of a sudden we've got this really, really, really big target.

And we found that as we went through systematically, we went and drilled our Rodeo target, and our Mariposa targets, which all had separate targets for different reasons. And then our main Rincones target, which we're just starting to get back, that's the area that we're going to build the resource, like the big numbers. And we're very, very encouraged by what we've seen so far there.

And so it is a bit of a game changer because this phase of drilling was just to confirm what we thought was the geological interpretation. It looks like we were correct, that maybe some of these other ideas that people had weren't there, that it was hard to add up big tonnages and potential under that interpretation. But under our interpretation, what we were able to find with this first phase of drilling says, "Yeah, we really could have something here," and that's what made it the game changer. And I guess that foreshadowing was not as subtle as I thought it might be.

Gerardo Del Real: Well, it helps to read the entire release, from top to bottom. And so I think the foreshadowing is wise in this case because you've seen many, many, many systems, Brian. And so when I hear typically conservative as far as it relates to the geology this early on, when I hear excitement from the team and I see some foreshadowing in the release, I think it should make shareholders pretty excited for what potentially is to come.

Brian McEwen: Gerardo, what I find really interesting is that anybody that was following us before with our project in Argentina, a Chinchillas project that we made a deal with Silver Standard Mining. So similar because people had gone in and there had been some drill holes and stuff at Chinchillas, and people there had said, "It's just too small." I mean, SSR Mining, or Silver Standard at the time, had said, "No, we've looked at it. We're not interested, it's just too small." Wwhen we looked at it, we saw something completely different, and we did exactly the same thing. We went in there, we drilled holes in a different direction, we did some geophysics in some different area, and we changed the whole thing. It could have been a standalone mine. And we ended up making a deal with them and doing whatever way it was we sold to them.

It's just because you got to go in with a fresh set of eyes. You don't accept anything as being for sure, and you test your ideas. And I think we're going to go down the same path as we did at Chinchillas here with San Pietro.

Gerardo Del Real: What comes next, Brian?

Brian McEwen: Well, we are still waiting, we put out a press release, as you know yesterday. We're hoping to get another press release out next week, and then we'll probably have another one out in early July. So, they're going to come bang, bang, bang. Because we're getting the drill results now. We're not sitting on these, we're waiting for the results to come in. And we drilled each of these areas and it'll be nice to put out all the juicy holes, but they're coming out in the order we receive them. And so far, they've all been good. So, we've got some press releases coming up, talking about what we see and the results of that and then where we're going to go from here.

We're going to get this whole thing together, start down the path to the 43-101, getting those things in. We'll figure out a lot better approach on how we do our infill drill program, and that'll lead towards resources and stuff.

So, we're pretty excited. Our next phase of drilling is already planned at 4,000 meters. And if we end up doing a bigger infilled program to resources, and we'll do that but I am very happy. Going back to your initial question, Gerardo. Yeah, very, very happy with the results.

Gerardo Del Real: Well, I know it was a bit in between updates since you and I chatted publicly or privately, for that matter. I suspect that with assays coming in now and the kind of numbers that we're hoping to see, that you and I will be chatting a bit more frequently. Brian, thank you as always for your time. And again, looking forward to doing it in the next couple of weeks.

Brian McEwen: Thanks again, Gerardo. Pleasure to talk to you anytime.

Gerardo Del Real: All right. Chat soon.