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

Hannan Metals (TSX-V: HAN) CEO Michael Hudson on Restart of Field Work at the San Martin Copper-Silver Project in Peru

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the CEO of Hannan Metals (TSX-V: HAN)(OTC: HANNF), Mr. Michael Hudson. Mike, how are you?

Michael Hudson: Very well as usual, Gerardo. Thankfully.

Gerardo Del Real: That's good to hear. I am happy to have a conversation with you today because we're finally getting the restart of field activities at the 100%-owned San Martin Copper-Silver Project. That's exciting news, Mike.

Michael Hudson: It is big news Gerardo, without a doubt. We left the field when the world shut down in March. We've been very busy actually behind the scenes, but investors don't necessarily see that. We're building for phase two of the company as we are awaiting for phase one to continue. 

Now, Tabalosos, the town in which we fly into, regular flights started there only earlier this month. The outcomes are not still great in Peru, lots of infections and we've got to be very careful for every reason why every company is cautious, mainly about bringing COVID into these country areas. So we've got to make sure completely that the people that we have going to these areas are healthy, and then equally from our own staff and stakeholder point of view, that they're well and we can look after them.

There's quite a lot of work in making sure that happens. We've got quite a lot of experience. As you and many of your listeners will know, we operate in many parts of the world in a few companies. We've had good practice now over the last six months working in a COVID-safe way. This is another part of the world, but literally our geologists and social licensing people will look more like doctors than they will geologists as we commence operations again.

Gerardo Del Real: You and the team should be commended for a very responsible approach to exploration. It would be very, very easy for someone that has your experience and a good sense of what this play, this basin-scale play, could lead to. It would be very easy for you to rush back into the field. You didn't do it. You provided support to the community in the interim, and you've been busy. 

The release mentions the fact that you've been working behind the scenes, staking more ground, acquiring data, discussing potential partnerships – I have to ask you about that in a second – and conducting remote surveys. Can you speak to what the last several months have looked like from a data perspective and what you've learned and developed?

Michael Hudson: You know, I often say that the best thing you can do when you employ a geologist is pay for them to look out the window because that literally is a euphemism for thinking time. No doubt, we've had a lot of thinking time. I think as a broader comment, the industry has had a lot of thinking time. 

For those considered explorers who know how to deal with their data, being locked out of the field isn't a complete disaster. Of course, it's very tough in the public domain not to have continuous news flow. But we spend a lot of our time thinking, compiling data, and planning our next steps. That we've had in spades. In fact, a very unusual time where we're not running around collecting new data and trying to put it into context with older data.

So, we have run lots of remote surveys and we've got a much firmer idea on what we've looked at. We've employed expert geologists who know and understand these mineral systems to opine on our work and what we should be doing next. 

As a consequence of all that work, we've been able to identify new projects and new areas, and you'll learn more about those soon. And then it's also allowed us to talk to lots of various partners in this project. You know, nothing is happening. We put it in the public domain that we are talking to various people, but this is a big project. This is over 120 kilometers where we found high-grade copper, just to remind everyone, from surface. Early days, but the context and the scale looks compelling, and it's attracted a lot of interest. Now we're very excited. It's the right time to get back there, both from a social and health perspective, but also from a technical perspective.

Gerardo Del Real: What can we look forward to over the coming months here, Mike?

Michael Hudson: Results from the field, Gerardo. What we've been waiting for. I suppose more definition of these projects. We are going back first to an area called Tabalosos. Tabalosos is an area where we've done reconnaissance work. We found multiple zones over a 30 kilometer trend in that license alone. But it's a little earlier stage than some of the work we did back from December to March this year at Sacanche which is about 80 kilometers south of where we're going in at Tabalosos. So we'll de-risk Tabalosos, look for the outcropping areas, learn the style of the mineralization. It's forming at multiple levels in this stratigraphic package, and some of those are more prospective than others. We've really got to work those out, and then you'll hear about more ground staking. We've got things in our back pocket and we hope they'll come to fruition. Let's go forward positively.

Gerardo Del Real: I giggle because you always do, Mike. You're one of the busiest CEOs in the field. You work extremely hard, you've done an incredibly effective job of positioning shareholders in a situation where I can't imagine a major not wanting to come in and start putting the pieces of the puzzle together on this massive, massive scale play.

Michael Hudson: We're working hard, Gerardo. So thank you.

Gerardo Del Real: Thanks for the update, Mike. Anything else you'd like to add to that?

Michael Hudson: No, just stay tuned. It is a key announcement and we're very excited to be getting back into the field.

Gerardo Del Real: Excellent. Thanks again, Mike.

Michael Hudson: Thanks, Gerardo.

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