Categories: Base Metals
Topics: General Base Metals

Hannan Metals (TSX-V: HAN)(OTC: HANNF) CEO Michael Hudson on Drilling in Ireland Now & in Latin America Next on Large-Scale Polymetallic Projects

 

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the chairman & CEO of Hannan Metals — Mr. Michael Hudson. Mike, first and foremost, how are you today, sir?

Michael Hudson: Very well, thank you, Gerardo. Always a pleasure.

Gerardo Del Real: I want to start this conversation by leading in with this statement: I have been waiting for the next three sets of catalysts that are about to unfold and actually have commenced for years.

And so with that, I want to start by congratulating you for the commencement of drilling in Ireland. You are targeting a big, big-scale system. You are targeting high-grade zinc, silver, and lead in Chile. Gold as well in Peru.

But we've got to start with Ireland. Congrats on the commencement of drilling. I've been there before. I've been at the project. Some of the intercepts produced what I've termed as alien rock that is very 43-101 compliant. But hopefully, we can put a link up to that alien rock. 

It was absolutely impressive to see it in person. And now, we're back at it trying to find the guts of the system. Can you describe that in intelligent form, please?

Michael Hudson: That alien rock, that's one that I haven't heard too much of since, well, maybe when you and I were mucking around in Ireland many years ago. 

You sort of touched on it, right, so let's get some perspective. Hannan has moved into Latin America in a big way, specifically, Peru. We've got some amazing associations there with Teck coming in and investing 9% in the company in a joint venture with JOGMEC — which is the Japanese government — looking for copper and big-scale systems; taking big, big swings in new frontier areas. 

And we've also recently gone into Chile and got what looks like a blind porphyry that we're doing some geophysics on in the next few weeks. And then, we'll have a drill target quickly there.

And then, all of a sudden, we're drilling again in Ireland where we spent millions and millions and millions of dollars from 2017, '18, and '19 but, really, moved away from that project when we started to find these big systems in Peru. 

And let's be frank… zinc is not the sexy rock that copper and gold presents to the capital markets. So we've been sitting on these Irish projects for a while. Without a doubt, we'd done some fantastic work there. We'd spent millions of dollars on seismic alone, which was unraveling the geology of that part of Ireland, and we found a big system. 

It's about 8 km south of a resource area that we'd bought from Lundin in the day and made it a little bit bigger called Kilbricken. So we thought Kilbricken was sort of a medium-sized project. It was about 8% to 9% zinc and about 4 or 5 million tonnes… so sort of half the size that we were really looking for. 

But maybe that's just a very big geochemical anomaly when we started to define this 8 km, this Kilmurry project, which is a 15-km-long, couple of km wide, ramp relay system, which, basically, you can see in the seismics. And you need these big fault systems to develop these zinc-silver-lead bodies. So they're quite predictable in many respects in where they form.

And we've got smoke, mineral smoke, if you like, all around this project; lots of drill holes with little indications of lead and zinc meters at percentages and thinner zones up to 50% or 60% in what is the footwall of the structure — so not the main area. 

The hanging wall, which is the part of that fault system that overhangs the structure was only tested by one hole that we extended in 2019, and we got all the indications that we were next to a major system.

It's deep; it's down at 700 or 800 meters so we need to find something very high-grade and very thick. But it's probably one of the most compelling targets that was developed in Ireland over the last decades… only probably second to Navan, which is one of the world's largest lead-zinc mines, which is still in operation in Ireland today operated by Boliden. 

So outside of Navan, we’ve probably got the most compelling target; a grassroots one. But we weren't going to leave Ireland without testing it. Our requirements in Ireland are that we had to spend some money or walk. And certainly, it wasn't a walk in question. So spending EUR$200,000 to test this system was a fairly no-brainer concept.

Gerardo Del Real: Too good not to drill!

Michael Hudson: Simply put.

Gerardo Del Real: Excellent, excellent. So here's the quote that I've been waiting for years for. The quote is:

“Hannan has developed a series of concurrent drill tests of large-scale critical metal projects starting today and extending over the coming years.”

Here's where it gets great: 

“We do not see the drill rigs stopping for long and look forward to providing investors with exposure to potential new and large-scale potential company-making grassroot discoveries.”

Of course, the order looks to be Ireland; then, it looks like San Martin in Peru, which, of course, part of which is comprised of the JOGMEC joint venture. And then, of course, the follow-up is going to be in Chile assuming that the groundwork proves up what you assume will be there. 

And then, going into, of course, the 100%-owned targets that Hannan has within its massive basin-scale land tenure in Peru. Do I have all of that right?

Michael Hudson: It's correct. It's only the San Martin and Chile projects in terms of which becomes first in the next three, four, or five months after Ireland is just the question. 

We're waiting on permits in Peru, and that's a hard system to nail down specifically when they will come even though the Peruvian government is making all of the right indications that they know they have a problem. 

And we can permit this drill hole in Ireland in literally a month or so. We can permit drilling in Chile in three or four months. And it takes two years in Peru, which makes it, essentially, uncompetitive unless you're doing other things. 

In the junior world, unless you're drilling and giving investors the exposure to big discoveries, really, it's a tough business. So that's why Ireland, Chile, and then San Martin — or vice versa with Chile and San Martin — are going to be drilled this year.

And then, we've got something like 17 porphyries we've already defined in Valiente, and we've started the first permitting there. We're probably 18 months away, at best, from getting on the ground. But we've got a new porphyry system; a belt that extends for 120 or 130 kilometers and really opening up a new frontier there. 

So yes, a cadena, or a chain of projects that will be drilled in the coming years, and there's going to be multiple opportunities here to hit the homerun.

Gerardo Del Real: Mr. Hudson, I hope you don't mind me saying it… but both you and I were very early to Patriot Battery Metals. That's proven to be very fruitful. I know I speak for myself when I say that the reason that I got involved with the company was because of the portfolio of large-scale, potentially company-making assets that it had. 

That's, obviously, proven to be an understatement given the bounty that it's proven thus far. And there's a lot of runway left there. I am going to be as transparent as I can to everyone that's listening: I will be acting very aggressively in adding Hannan shares over the next several months. 

You can do with that as you will, folks! 

It is not a one day to the next day type of story. But one drill hole changes everything. And we have a lot of drilling going on here over the next several years, which gives us many, many, many shots for a significant discovery and/or discoveries. Anything to add to that, Mike?

Michael Hudson: No, you nailed it. Buy cheap when nobody really cares and make sure you're looking for systems that are big and, ideally, that haven't been tested before.

And that's the sweet spot to succeeding in this junior business. And we are giving our shareholders the opportunity to be at the whim of the truth machine, being the drill rig, and very happy to be in that position now.

Gerardo Del Real: Mike, a pleasure as always; appreciate it as a shareholder to see capital going in the ground. It's been a bit of a wait. I'm excited to see those drills turning and see what they turn up. We'll chat soon.

Michael Hudson: Thanks, Gerardo.

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