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

Hannan Metals (TSX-V: HAN)(OTC: HANNF) CEO Michael Hudson on Mapping Out Multiple Potentially District-Scale Copper-Gold Porphyry-Epithermal Targets at Flagship Valiente Project, 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 today, señor?

Michael Hudson: Muy bien from down under, Gerardo. Very well, thank you.

Gerardo Del Real: Well listen, it's exciting times. Hannan just commenced a 79 km geophysical survey on what you describe as five porphyry epithermal targets at the 100%-owned Valiente project in Peru. 

I'll add my own spin, and this is just my take because of the size of these targets and these systems, at least at this early stage, but I'm calling each one of the targets a project, right?

You talk about having eight that you've done some work on. And obviously, now you're advancing a certain amount of them. But there are also 10 earlier-stage ones. And I’ve got to emphasize to everyone out there that, to me, Hannan Metals has managed to put together, at the very least, 18 very potentially prospective projects within this brand new undiscovered belt that we're finally starting to get more of a peek at.

So I wanted to have you on to talk about the five porphyry epithermal targets that you're working on at Valiente. And then, I obviously want to set the table for the rest of the year because I couldn't be more excited.

Michael Hudson: Thanks, Gerardo. Yes, it's interesting to hear your take there because it simply is that. We've got a new Miocene — so that's the age on earth that was very fertile in the Andes — it’s a geological age Miocene porphyry belt over something like 150 kilometers. 

These are all new discoveries, essentially, unknown from only a couple of years ago. And we've done a hell of a lot of work advancing them and bringing them all up to basically the drill-stage. And this is just another step.

We've mobilized a geophysical contractor for the next few months to go out there and do the hard work and look at these things in the third dimension. We've found lots of copper and lots of gold at surface over kilometers in each one of these targets. 

But this is the first time for all of them, bar one, that we're looking into that third dimension and just seeing the scale of the system and if it continues at-depth, and, if so, where and how big it’s developing.

Gerardo Del Real: What are you hoping to accomplish with the survey on the five porphyry epithermal targets? How much information will you be able to derive and process, and how is that going to aid the permitting process on the projects where that process hasn't yet been initiated because you're derisking those projects, right?

Michael Hudson: Yes, so we talked about the 18 porphyries. At eight, we've done a significant amount of work at surface. And now, five of those we're taking into that third dimension, if you like. And to answer each one of your questions there, I think maybe we should just quickly go through the targets… without getting too much into the weeds… but basically it's to demonstrate the scale of the system and where it is and also to refine drill targets. That's simply put.

If we look at the press release, Previsto Central is what we call the monster. It's a huge 5 km by 3 km footprint, which is up there with the biggest porphyry footprints in the world. And this is the first time we're doing it… we basically ruled two long lines across it just to see the system at-depth. So that's a first look to see under this monster. 

Previsto East, which is 3 km east of Previsto Central, is where we've got lots of copper and gold in boulders and soils, sub-economic soils, over kilometers in that area. But we've never found an outcrop. And is it just shedding off the big one from the west or is that just locally sourced? And we just want to see what's under those trees and soils to see if there's a primary source there. 

Then, we’ll move into the more advanced ones where we've actually got final permitting for drilling upcoming, and we hope that will come in Q4, the permitting for drilling. So we're doing much more detailed work. We're doing 3D offset array IP surveys so we can actually model the mineralization at-depth in much more detail.

So that's for the Ricardo Herrera porphyry. Sortilegio is another porphyry target about 8 km to the north. And in the middle is a project called Vista Alegre, which is much more gold-rich and looks like it's a mix between an epithermal gold system and a copper system.

Gerardo Del Real: I’ll tell you what's interesting to me, Mike, and I've said it before and I'll say it again, is that it’s going to be fun once, and if, but I believe it's a matter of when, not a matter of if… once these discoveries start being made, it's going to be interesting for me to look back in a few years and sort out whether there's more copper or more gold in these systems as a whole, right? 

And I am talking about the belt now because there are obviously lots of porphyry targets that are copper-gold but there are some that are also primarily gold-copper systems. Is that accurate?

Michael Hudson: Yes, and it's an evolution of these systems. It's where we are in the system, number one. So, at the top levels of these magmatic systems, you get the epithermal gold parts of the systems. As you get deeper into the porphyry, you go into a more copper or copper-gold porphyry, depending on the chemistry of that porphyry. 

And we've got a couple of different porphyry chemistries or signatures. We've got the alkaline porphyries, which are typically much more gold-rich than the calc-alkaline… so there's a bit too much geological terminology.

But we do have these gold-rich systems into the porphyries and then naturally going up into the epithermals. Previsto Central at the top part is a mountain that's 700 meters, and we see very little copper there but there's lots of gold. And then, when you come down to the lower levels, we're into the porphyry copper. So we see that transition in individual projects and then across the projects.

Gerardo Del Real: Interesting. Now, before I let you go, I have to go one at a time with the three projects, as I'm calling them, where we're anticipating permits, hopefully, in the next several months and, obviously, with the goal to drill immediately thereafter. But those would be Ricardo Herrera, Vista Alegre, and Sortilegio. What are you expecting or hoping from the Ricardo Herrera porphyry copper target?

Michael Hudson: We did some 2D surveys there, broadly-spaced lines, just to see how it worked, a year and a bit ago. And so we know that the system continues to depth, and we saw it to 500 meters, and we saw it dip south below the surface work and all of the geology and geochemistry that we got at surface. 

Now, we want to see much more detail in this much more densely planned survey so that we can put drill holes exactly into the best parts. And we'll have to make some assumptions there from what we see on surface and where the copper-rich areas are because there are different ages of magmatic rocks, the intrusive rocks, that have come into the area.

We've got fertile rocks, and we'd love to see high chargeabilities or resistivity associated with those so we can target the best parts of them, basically. You want to get your best holes in as early as possible. That's the simple methodology there.

Gerardo Del Real: Excellent. And again, that's Ricardo Herrera. Vista Alegre is an epithermal gold porphyry copper target or project. What are you hoping for there?

Michael Hudson: We see much less there just by the nature that Ricardo is a hill. Vista Alegre is more so in the lower areas so a lot more soil cover. We do have outcrops with running grams of gold, and it's over kilometers. And again, I think we did one or two lines there that showed some extremely anomalous IP response, so a lot of sulfide in the ground, and we really want to map that out. So we just got a little look into that system at the early stages.

And again, we're doing the detailed survey because we know there's a lot of fertility in that system, and we just want to know where the best parts of it are located. We really couldn't tell you today where the best parts are to put a drill hole in but this IP will help nail that down.

Gerardo Del Real: Last but not least, Sortilegio, you've found some boulders that assayed up to 16% copper and 4.39 grams per tonne gold. What are you hoping to see and find at Sortilegio?

Michael Hudson: Yes, so this is one that we've done no geophysics on before. It's about 8 km north of Ricardo Herrera. It's one of these alkalic systems, so a lot more gold in it. A lot more gold than we see at Ricardo, so it's got that aspect to it, and it's very large. It's 1.8 km by 1 km, and we're really looking at that for the first time. 

But we know with all of that metal literally dripping off of that target over that area that there's a system there waiting to be pulled apart and understood. And that's what we're doing for the first time there.

So a little less advanced but we hope that this 3D offset array IP survey will push Sortilegio in understanding up to the level where we've got Ricardo. And we've basically got 13 or 14 drill platforms on all of those three; a total of 40 drill platforms being permitted as we speak.

Gerardo Del Real: When do you anticipate we will start seeing some of the results from these surveys?

Michael Hudson: We started the survey at Previsto Central, and we've got one of the lines just finishing. So I'd expect news in the coming weeks; it’s all being well-planned with a lot of people out there, 40 people, in the survey keeping equipment running, etc. So we're not too far off.

Gerardo Del Real: Well, I don't think it's a coincidence that you started with the monster. I am absolutely thrilled that we're at the stage now where we get to start peeling some of the layers back a little bit at a time, and I think it's going to be a fun several years, Mike. Anything to add to that?

Michael Hudson: No, just seminal exploration, surveys in frontier areas, defining massive systems — and it's a very exciting time.

Gerardo Del Real: And you're still getting good feedback and cooperation with the government, right? I know when I mentioned the potential for this to become a multi, multi, multi-billion dollar company, the one pushback that I've gotten in the past is, ‘Yes, but can they get through the permitting?’ And I absolutely believe that it's going in the right direction. But I'd rather get it from you being that you're on the ground there with the team.

Michael Hudson: Well, you can only work with facts, and the facts are that it's taken us quite a long time to permit the JOGMEC JV, which has nothing to do with the San Martin project that's taken a couple of years to get the drill permitting. Whereas, at the Belen area, which is Ricardo Herrera, Vista Allegro, and Sortilegio, all together, it’s essentially 30% to 40% of that timeframe where we find ourselves in almost the equivalent position.

And so the timing has increased… there are green shoots… the government is making all of the right noise. The Minister of Mines has come to one of our projects twice this year in the local towns to show support for the project and what we're doing. So we're getting support at all different levels… and remembering that the local people here want these projects. And that's where it all fundamentally stems from, and the vast, vast majority of people are very supportive.

And we've got lots and lots of people — as many people in the social licensing team as geologists — really working hand-in-hand with all of the stakeholders to bring them along as we unravel these discoveries.

Gerardo Del Real: Exciting times. I want to see all of it before the discoveries start rolling out. I will be there next week along with Mr. Nick Hodge, my business partner, colleague, and friend, and along with Mr. Tim Hicks, our audio-visual camera wizard. I can't wait to document it, and I can't wait to share it with the readers and followers. And thank you in advance for being such a gracious host, Mike.

Michael Hudson: Thank you for making the effort. You'll have lots of fun. And you’ll see some amazing things and some very good people down there, Gerardo. Have fun and stay safe.

Gerardo Del Real: Looking forward to it. Thank you so much.

Click here to see more from Hannan Metals Ltd.