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

Hannan Metals (TSX-V: HAN)(OTC: HANNF) CEO Michael Hudson on New High Grade Copper Discovery at San Martin Project, Peru

 

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the chairman and CEO of Hannan Metals, Mr. Michael Hudson. Mike, congrats and welcome back on. How are you sir?

Michael Hudson: I'm very well. All good down under here. Thanks, Gerardo.

Gerardo Del Real: Well listen, I've been pretty vocal about my support for Hannan and why I think that Hannan Metals is about to go on a similar, and possibly even exceed, type of run that Patriot Battery Metals went on. And the reason I say it is when we wrote checks and you were fortunate enough as well to write checks really early on for Patriot, what we all liked obviously was the stuff coming out of the ground, the scale of it, the district scale land package and the geology just kind of made sense for what it was we were looking for. And when I look at Hannan, Hannan has a basin of very, very attractive geology, mineral package, scale, copper, gold, silver, you have the right commodity exposure there. It checks every single box for me.

The one box that up until recently was a concern was Peru because Peru obviously has gone through some volatile political times. Getting the permit at San Martin was a game-changer for the company and I think bodes really, really well for Hannan here the next few years. So when I see the announcement that you have a new thick style of high-grade sediment hosted copper in Peru on the San Martin project, that gets me excited because I know drills will be turning very, very soon there. Can you speak to the new discovery?

Michael Hudson: It's basically what we've been looking for, I think, in this area. So it's 45 kilometers to the west of the main area that we've been looking at. The main area we call Tabalosos. That's a very interesting target in its own right. It averages about a meter of 2% copper and an ounce silver over tens and tens of kilometers. And that's where we've got our drill permit just approved. This new area is called Soritor and it looks very, very much interesting in a geological sense. Now we are seeing a five to 20 meter thick horizon, highly leached. So it's the weathering in that area that leaches the copper from the surface. So certainly the geological assumption is that what we see at surface should be higher grade as we go to depth. Notwithstanding, we see some amazingly high grade samples, maybe fresher samples. The highlight was 5.8 at 3.1 copper and a couple of ounces silver, 65 grams per tonne.

But we are seeing up close to 20 meters thickness of copper mineralized horizon. It extends over at least 2.3 kilometers and it's just a part of the system that we are really looking for really, really like this area, Gerardo. It's got more consistency that you need a chemical part of the rock to trap the copper and we call that a reductant. And in Tabalosos that reductant is plant material, literally old plants. But that looks like it's just a little more variable, that plant material. Whereas in this new discovery it's a much thicker sandstone and the sandstone looks like it's had a sour gas, so hydrogen sulfide in the rock and that's acted as a reductant. So that's more consistent. So geologically, potentially, economically it's got scale over kilometers. It's got thickness, it's got grade and we just need to do more work to prospect it, to run soils and then start the permitting towards drilling.

Gerardo Del Real: Well, exciting times. Let's talk about the area where you've been granted the drill permit. How is that coming along? How is work there coming along?

Michael Hudson: Well, we're just finalizing the permitting process. So we had our DIA, Declaracion De Impacto Ambiental, which the EIA granted back in January. That is by far the main permitting step. Once you have that in hand, you need to apply for the authority to work or initiate activities. And that's what we're doing. And that's a 45-day process nominally. So that's in the system as we speak. Once we get that, we can start construction of the drill pads and once we get that, we need one more permit, which is the water permit to access the water to use on the drill rigs. And we've had lots of hydrologists out there making those studies for us. But we just need that water permit, which is a 30-day process. So getting very close, in the final vestiges and we think we'll be drilling there around the middle of the year, which is the right time also because it's the dry season and much more accessible and much, much easier process.

Gerardo Del Real: I imagine, given the amount of targets and the scale of the land package that, there is a lot of work going on in the field. Can you speak to that a bit?

Michael Hudson: Yeah, we have basically geologists, four split between each different project. So we have the JOGMEC joint venture where JOGMEC, the Japanese government are fully funding this new discovery and the drilling in San Martin. And we're doing a lot of work all the time, of course, trying to find new areas and refine the existing areas. They're over such a large area you are always working to refine. But we are very much looking forward to drill testing Tabalosos East, which will be the first look in three dimensions. And then of course, which is not part of this discussion, we've got a very, very active program about 250 kilometres south, looking in this new porphyry belt where we've got 18 different porphyries that we've identified. So a lot happening both technically and then socially as well. Of course that social licence is an ongoing exercise in Peru and it's earned and you need to maintain it rather than just have it signed off. So there's a huge social team that we have in place to keep all stakeholders informed about what we're doing.

Gerardo Del Real: Gold at all-time highs, copper at all-time highs, or copper headed to all-time highs, I get ahead of myself and get optimistic at times, but silver breaking out, pretty good time to have a basin full of gold, copper and silver. Anything to add to that Mr. Hudson?

Michael Hudson: No, we need more copper. The world is short. People seem to have just worked that out again and we're not making big new discoveries. And Hannan is swinging very large in two areas in Peru that are some of the most prolific copper-bearing rocks in the world. And we found two new hundred plus regional trends with copper literally dripping out of the ground. And we just look forward to advancing and making those discoveries.

Gerardo Del Real: Good stuff, Mike. A pleasure as always. Thanks again for your time.

Michael Hudson: Thanks, Gerardo.

Gerardo Del Real: Cheers.

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