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

Hannan Metals (TSX-V: HAN)(OTC: HANNF) CEO Michael Hudson on Receipt of Environmental Permit for Inaugural Drill Program at 100%-owned Valiente Copper-Gold Project, Peru

 

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the chairman & CEO of my single-largest personal holding. I'm talking about Michael Hudson from Hannan Metals. 

Mike, congratulations are in order. You and the team have been working very, very hard behind the scenes for a very long time to get to where you are today. You just announced that you've received your DIA approval for a maiden drill program at the 100%-owned Valiente project in Peru. Congrats, sir. 

Again, as I mentioned, I know there's been a lot of hard work behind the scenes and a lot of people on the sidelines that love the targets, love the story, and love the projects but were a little nervous about the permitting. So congrats.

Michael Hudson: Thanks. A real milestone, Gerardo, without a doubt. And Peru seems to be up and running again. We got this granted in a timeframe that a year or so ago you could only dream of.

Gerardo Del Real: I couldn't agree more. Now is where the rubber starts hitting the road, right? There are a couple of boxes that you have to check before the drill rig is mobilized. Of course, the weather and the rainy season also plays a part in that. 

But it looks like, from reading the release and the bit that we talked off-air, that things are lining up really, really well here for the next quarter or two to where we might have a drill-bit turning sometime in late March, early April.

Michael Hudson: Yes, around Q2 2025 is the guidance in the press release so there are a few steps to go. The Declaracion de Impacto Ambiental (DIA) is the main environmental permit. That's the big step in getting to drilling in these areas. So it is absolutely the milestone. 

There are a few more boxes, as you say. There's one to get, the CIRA, or the archeological certificate. We've already had a number of those granted for this same area but you just need to reapply once you've got your DIA granted. So we see no issues there.

And then, the second step is to get the signature of all the people who live in the area who will be impacted by the drill program, be it the pathways in or the drill platforms. And we're well and truly down the path of getting those signatures. And, of course, the DIA is in areas where we've got full acceptance and support from the local people. So far, so good. 

We’ll see that CIRA before the end of the year, and then the process in Peru will take two or three months to get those initiate-activities complete. It should be in 40 days, is the statutory timing, but as is the case, these things generally take a little longer.

And then, the Peruvians have also updated their legislation that the water permit that, for example, we need at the DIA in San Martin. The other DIA that we have granted in Hannan is now incorporated in the decision that we got today. So that water permit is already built into the DIA.

They've shortcutted the process in terms of the number of post-DIA steps. And this was granted in 11 months. These things took years before. So it's very encouraging all around.

Gerardo Del Real: I know, last year, there was a focus — and not just by Hannan but also by several companies operating in Peru — on articulating the investment case in Peru and how permitting and the timelines and the transparency around the permitting process needed updating and needed to be refined. It absolutely appears to me that that is the case. Again, not just with Hannan. 

I just returned from the New Orleans Investment Conference and spoke with several companies that are either in the process of drilling or in the process of permitting. And almost unanimously, everyone shared that sentiment that this year has been a step-change in the process. So that is extremely encouraging. I couldn’t be more excited to get to drilling, of course, to see what Mother Nature left behind and put the truth-machines to it. 

Let's talk Ricardo Herrera, Vista Alegre, and Sortilegio briefly. I know that you've described the targets in the past. But now that we have the DIA and we have a path toward drilling, I really just want to emphasize to everyone the scale — I call them projects; they're targets — of each of the targets because they're each separate targets that are just boasting significant scale in their individual right. I can't wait to get into Belen and start drilling there.

Michael Hudson: Yes, there are so many targets in Hannan. We talk about 18 different porphyries that we've got and five or six of them that we've worked on in more detail. 

Valiente is the whole project over 150 kilometers. Belen is the DIA area, which is an 8 km by 2 km area that contains the projects you just named. 

Belen encompasses Ricardo Herrera, Vista Alegre, and Sortilegio. Ricardo Herrera is a porphyry. Sortilegio is a porphyry. They're about a 1 km by 1 km footprint at surface. 

We've done a lot of IP over all three targets, including Vista Alegre, which is the third one I'll talk about in a moment. 

But we've got two porphyries that are standalone, great scale, and all of the right rocks at surface and geochemistry. You'll see a lot more around the IP when we are able to interpret that data and put it together. The survey, literally, just in the last day or so, has finished up. So that's all imminent.

We've got two porphyries. They're copper-gold porphyries. Sortilegio definitely looks like an alkalic system as it has that great gold input that makes it even more valuable, in my view at least. 

And then, Vista Alegre is sort of the meat in the sandwich between the two porphyries, and it's an epithermal system. It looks like, in itself, over 2.5 km long and lots of ore-grade plus-gram-per-tonne boulders over kilometers shedding off and coherent soils. Again, you'll see the IP from that target. 

In itself, Belen is a potential company-making project, let alone what we've got coming up at Previsto, which is a 5 km by 5 km area and “the monster.” But that's earlier-stage, and we are just about to start permitting that for drilling. We're going to be busy for years drilling at Belen if everything comes together.

Gerardo Del Real: There's a gentleman by the name of Alan Wilson who is a global expert. And Hannan, and this part of the world, this unexplored part of the world, has even caught his attention. Can you speak to Mr. Wilson's background a bit and what he's communicated to you about why he's so interested in what Hannan has been doing in Peru?

Michael Hudson: Well, it's timely because Alan gave a talk today in Peru. Alan is a global expert. He's a geologist. He has thirty-plus years of experience. He's sort of coming behind Chilito, if you like, in terms of his expertise in the systems he's seen. He did his PhD on these alkalic copper-gold porphyries in the Macquarie Arc in Australia. He's British. He's worked a lot in the Andes. 

He gave a key talk at a conference in Lima today, and he spoke about this potential new porphyry epithermal belt where it shouldn't be — that you and I have talked about a lot — that’s just now starting to get traction. And with Alan talking about it in sensible terms, third parties are now starting to recognize that there is this new belt, this new copper belt, that was unknown until the last few years. 

And our work has unraveled that. And the next stage is to start drilling holes that will demonstrate economic grades. That's our next challenge, and the permit today is one huge step towards that.

Gerardo Del Real: Well, congratulations again, Mike. I'm excited to get the IP work that's been done here from the Belen area. Any idea on the timeline… can you provide some guidance there?

Michael Hudson: Yes, again, the CIRA will be applied for now, and probably has been already, by our team in Peru. Ideally, we'll see that before the end of the year, and we'll apply for the initiate-activities permit in the new year. 

We're giving guidance that's relatively realistic, as much as we can, within the bounds of things that are out of our direct control. That should be a two to three month process. So we anticipate seeing drill rigs mobilizing at the start of Q2, which would be the best timing, and that's not too far away.

Gerardo Del Real: Exciting times. Looking forward to more IP work and results from the field hopefully soon. Thanks again, Mike.

Michael Hudson: Thanks, Gerardo.

Click here to see more from Hannan Metals Ltd.