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Hannan Metals (TSX-V: HAN)(OTC: HANNF) CEO Michael Hudson Discusses High-Grade Gold Channel Sample Results, Previsto Gold-Copper Prospect, Peru

 

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the chairman & CEO — my largest personal holding, Hannan Metals Ltd. — I'm speaking with none other than Mr. Michael Hudson. Mike, how are you today?

Michael Hudson: I'm great, thank you, on a great day for Hannan Metals.

Gerardo Del Real: Listen, a phenomenal day for Hannan Metals. A couple of things stood out from this news release, and I'll read the headline in a bit. But let me tell you something that took me back to the Mawson — now Southern Cross Gold Consolidated — days. 

I remember early on when you were on the ground at Sunday Creek and you mentioning Fosterville many, many times and the analogs there. And you got a little bit of pushback from some of the people in the business that maybe should be minding their minds instead of minding Twitter or X. And that eventually played out with one of the most significant high-grade gold discoveries in recent times at Sunday Creek. 

I have to tell you, as a HAN shareholder, a substantial shareholder, somebody that has been following the Hannan story and supporting the story for quite some time, it was really, really satisfying to start hearing you talk about Cripple Creek-like systems when you put out a release like this. And let me read it: 

You sampled 69.1 meters at 2.4 grams per tonne (g/t) gold that included 26 meters of 5.4 g/t Au. 

And the type of the system is critical, and so I want you to explain that a bit; this, of course, at the monster Previsto Central in Peru. Sir, congrats. I'm a happy shareholder, clearly. We were up over 30% today; shares closed near a buck, and I think it’s headed much higher. Give me the context on the release. You’ve got to be thrilled!

Michael Hudson: They were great results. And you get that chill in your spine when you see those assay results coming in from the lab, and then you're trying to work out where they've come from and the widths and the location and the context. It's an amazing discovery. It’s early days; it is a couple of channels but the context is critical. 

Number one, you mentioned the results. You don't trench high-grade gold like this very often. It's one of the first times I've seen it exactly like this. And it was in rocks; they were quite cryptic at surface to see. They had moss, they were in a creek, and the guys didn't really think they were as prospective as they turned out to be. 

But we were following up a 0.4 oz grab sample that ran 7 g/t Au. We were just doing a bit more sampling around where we'd seen some grade before. And, of course, then we sampled that 69 meters at 2.4 g/t Au, which included that 26 meters at 5.4 g/t Au. Plus, a silver credit up to an ounce per tonne in that higher-grade area; 27 g/t Ag. And also, a lot of tellurium in this system, which is diagnostic of these systems. 

But the context is that it's part of a 4 x 4 km soil anomaly that exceeds 0.1 g/t Au. And so the footprint of what this could be is extremely high-grade. We're also just 1.3 km along strike where we've been trenching a porphyry; a very different part of the system. 

We trenched up to 192 meters there of leached copper at 0.16% Cu over a very big footprint there in itself. This is a porphyry transitioning to an epithermal system, and the scale is large. Now, we've got these economic grades at surface. And the style you asked about, this is what we're calling an alkalic gold style.

They're hosted in rocks that are quartz-poor, basically. It's a specific type of host rock. And then, we're getting a lot of geochemical signature that’s typical of these systems; a lot of vanadium. It's in a mineral called roscoelite, a vanadium-rich mica. We're seeing a lot of tellurium amongst other things. 

And the analogs of these alkalic-type low-sulfidation epithermal systems are like Cripple Creek and Porgera, amongst others, and they can form very large systems. We know we've got alkalic porphyries out there that we've been sampling; gold-copper-rich porphyries. 

It's not so strange to know that we're in these types of rocks. But to see this gold system emerge by itself is extremely encouraging and, in its context, even more so.

Gerardo Del Real: You mentioned a 4 x 4 km gold in soil anomaly greater than 0.1 g/t Au. And look, I always pride myself on being a simple guy… I say I'm a simple guy with some simple ideas that sometimes work out. 

But if I start doing the math of the gold at surface at 0.1 g/t Au, how common is that? That just seems, well, let's put it this way… it seems like a heck of a head start. And I don't want to put a number out there because people are going to think, ‘There goes Gerardo getting too excited again!’ But the potential here for millions and millions and millions of ounces of gold is as obvious as I've ever seen it.

Michael Hudson: Well, the system is large, Gerardo. That's one thing that we can see and see clearly. It's early days. But when you find this amount of gold early on, there's a very good chance that we haven't found the one and only or the best parts of this system. There's lots of evidence for mineralization across a huge area, and that's really our challenge now is to try and unravel this. 

And, of course, we're in a very good position because about 20 km to the southwest, we've got the Belen area, which has the two porphyries and the epithermal target at Ricardo Herrera, Vista Alegre, and Sortilegio that we'll be drilling subject to final, final steps of the permitting we’ve made. 

We achieved our main drill permit there only just recently. We'll be drilling that Belen area as we're unraveling this amazingly large discovery at Previsto and taking it towards drill permitting. It won't be a quick exercise to get in to drill this Previsto discovery because we haven't started permitting that for drilling because it's such a new discovery. 

We've got to work out where the best parts of this system are and then start collecting all of the environmental data. And ideally, sometime next year, we will be ready to drill it and have permits to drill it. But we'll be working on the 8-km-long system at Belen, and, with 40 drill platforms there, we'll also be very busy drilling and unraveling the monster, which is Previsto.

Gerardo Del Real: One last question on Previsto… and then I do want to make sure we highlight Sortilegio and Vista Alegre and Ricardo Herrera because I think each one of those, as you described in the latest release, are potential company-makers in their own right, taking nothing away from those projects that we'll see drilling here in the next several months. 

But the question that I have, and that I also asked when I was onsite, is, ‘So do you think we have more copper or do you think we have more gold?’ And I know what the likely answer is: it's probably too early to tell! But it seems like we have a whole heck of a lot of both. And that's probably a really good problem to have, right?

Michael Hudson: Exactly. It's early days but there's a lot of gold in the system. And it's certainly not just a copper porphyry system. It's a gold system and an epithermal alkalic gold system. And then, that's transitioning down to these copper-gold porphyries. 

Certainly, gold occurs in two different environments. And that's the most encouraging thing, really; in so many respects, gold is a much easier sell than copper in isolation.

Gerardo Del Real: Have you ever seen, at this early stage, a system quite like this with this scale and these grades at surface?

Michael Hudson: No.

Gerardo Del Real: And how long have you been doing this, Mike?

Michael Hudson: Long enough… 30-plus years. Now, this is one of those very special projects. I do want to stress the early-stage nature. The context is there. But you don't sample very high grades over such large lengths within the context of such a large footprint very often in your career.

Gerardo Del Real: Phenomenal work. The market is clearly starting to understand. I'm looking forward to a fun 2025. Thanks again for your time, Mike.

Michael Hudson: Thanks, Gerardo.

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