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

Hannan Metals (TSX-V: HAN) CEO Michael Hudson on Copper-Gold Porphyry Discovery at Ucayali in Peru

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the CEO of Hannan Metals, Mr. Michael Hudson. Mike, how are you this morning?

Michael Hudson: Doing very well from down under. Thank you, Gerardo.

Gerardo Del Real: Mike, I kind of pride myself on being a pretty simple guy. I'm not a geologist. I don't have an MBA. But when I read a headline that says “Hannan announces copper gold porphyry discovery in Peru, samples up to 25.6% copper,” and then I read further down the release and I see that that happened the first day that the field team was out there. Even a simple guy like me thinks that's probably a very good thing. Can you provide better context for today's release? Because it's absolutely spectacular.

Michael Hudson: Yeah. It is a good thing. Just as a side comment, before we get into the detail, geology just confuses people because we have our own language. There's actually a geological dictionary out there. We sound pretty fancy, but really we're just sophisticated prospectors and really that's what gets you excited when you read this and what got us very excited. I mean, this is a new discovery. Hannan is now into three parts. As we know, we've got the JOGMEC joint venture up in San Martin, which is we're working hard and you'll see more information from that. That's $35 million to feasibility to earn 75% that the Japanese government have joint ventured in to ground. Then we've got a third more of that ground in San Martin in our own name, that copper silver sediment hosted style of copper we're exploring in our own right.

And then zip down about 200 kilometers south along that eastern Andes chain in the high jungle. And that's you get into Ucayali and that's where this new discovery we've made that we announced today is located. Now this is a different style to what we're exploring in San Matin, that sediment hosted copper, which is the second largest producer of copper in the world in terms of its style. This is what we're exploring for down in Ucayali is porphyry and porphyries are of course the most prolific style of copper. And importantly, this is a copper gold porphyry, which is a very desirable form of mineralization. The gold companies themselves are starting to move in these copper gold porphyries because they're a huge source of gold, and gold-only mineralization is getting harder and harder. So this is you're seeing more and more of the gold companies, as well as the copper companies moving into these styles of mineralization.

And this is true frontier area. It hasn't been explored much at all. Of course, we haven't got every record of everyone who's been out there, but we know it's been completely under done. And we put together over the last six months, as we've spoken about lots of data and information and reprocessing public data and Peru Petro data, a lot of the geophysical data that's been made freely available just recently from the petroleum company of Peru. And plus 25 years of experience in Peru and a knowledge of how these areas are starting to open up. I mean, this is frontier area for a reason. 20 years ago, when I was wandering around there or 25 years ago, it was really, you didn't want to be there. It was a narco trafficking area, but that shut down 20 years ago. It's very different. People earn their incomes from a more normal forms of agriculture.

And then we put a lot of effort up in San Martin into social licensing, and telling people what we're doing, explaining what exploration is, and we'll do the same here. It's a much earlier days here in Ucayali, but this is a huge area. I mean, we've got something like stream sediments that are very high. They are very high in copper and gold. And then we're finding float that is remnants of a porphyry shedding off into the creeks. That's absolutely confirmed over a six by three kilometer area, and then it extends even further south 20 kilometers. So in context, these results are hard to interpret for people past the 25% copper number and 28 grams silver in that same sample. But all these results have great context, and you just don't do these things very regularly in the exploration business.

Gerardo Del Real: You mentioned it, but I want to reiterate it. This is not on the San Martin joint venture ground. This is on 100% owned ground. Correct?

Michael Hudson: Absolutely. 200 kilometers south of our 35 million US dollar joint venture with JOGMEC.

Gerardo Del Real: I read yesterday evening that Peru is implementing new COVID restrictions. Is the field work affected at all by the new restrictions? And if so, how?

Michael Hudson: Yes, is the short point. Peru is having a terrible third wave with these new variants. And a lot of the country has been locked down. Húanucu which is part of this project is in that zone. So actually we've got people in the field today, but they've got a return to base by the end of the month. So we'll see how long that lock down is in place. Up in San Martin it is not locked down. It's not one of the areas. It's actually one of the more open areas. And we're actually just talking internally, getting all the right information and making some decisions about that literally over the next hours. But of course the most important thing is to keep our people and the people around us safe so you know we've taken an obviously cautious approach here. The geology has been there for tens of millions of years, and it's not going to change. And if we have to take a a month or so break to comply with the Peruvian regulations and to keep everyone safe ultimately.

Gerardo Del Real: You've been extremely responsible in that sense. You should be commended for that. I have to believe that if it is a month break or a couple of weeks, that you'll have plenty of data to be going through. Right? Given the large nature of the land position.

Michael Hudson: Yeah. No problems there. No problems there. As we've spoken about, sometimes the best thing you can do is pay geologists to look out the window and think, and we've got a lot of data to do that with, and this Ucayali discovery, the new porphyry, is evidence of thinking time. So now I still maintain that in this business there'll be many discoveries that come out of our COVID lockdowns.

Gerardo Del Real: I have to believe that your phone has been busy since this morning's announcement.

Michael Hudson: Yeah. There's been a lot of people who see it, love it, and understand it. And this is a fundamental thing. I mean, this is one of the best news releases in my opinion, that the company's put out there, still early days and a lot of work to do. But from a geological perspective, an exploration perspective, this is huge.

Gerardo Del Real: Wonderful, Mike. Anything else you'd like to add to that?

Michael Hudson: Now. We're just extremely well-placed for 2021 now with our fully funded project up in San Martin, and then two thirds of the ground are held in Hannan exploring in our own right. And remember, we're a top 10 holder in Peru of mineral tenure, which puts us amongst the very biggest companies on earth. And we're swinging above our weight and making discoveries in those big areas.

Gerardo Del Real: Impressive work. Congrats again. And we'll chat soon.

Michael Hudson: Thanks, Gerardo.

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