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

Latin Metals (TSX-V: LMS)(OTC: LMSQF) Director of Corporate Communications Elyssia Patterson on Multiple Upcoming Copper-Gold Drill Programs by Partners Barrick Gold, AngloGold Ashanti & More

 

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the director of corporate communications for Latin Metals — Ms. Elyssia Patterson. Elyssia, it's great to have you back on. How are you?

Elyssia Patterson: I'm very well, and thank you very much for having me. It's always a pleasure to come on.

Gerardo Del Real: It's great to catch up. We've had several private conversations about how exciting 2023 is going to be for Latin Metals. A lot of those catalysts are heavily weighted towards Q2 and Q3, which we're right on the cusp of. But I have to say, you and the team have been doing some brilliant work on multiple fronts. 

One, generating major partners that are going to fund major exploration programs and swing for a homerun and a discovery of significance. But two, you've also been doing a phenomenal job of exploring your own properties and getting some of those properties ready for new partners. 

The last several news releases have highlighted how you keep finding high-grade copper all over Peru. You have a portfolio of projects in Argentina as well. So I wanted to have you come on and just get your take on your background and why you got involved with Latin Metals. And then, let's have a conversation about why we're all so excited about 2023.

Elyssia Patterson: You know what… I'm excited for 2023… but I'm already really excited. And I don't know how much more excited I can get but I think I'm going to get even more excited as the months go on because, at Latin Metals, it's not a typical mining company. 

We do our own surface exploration, which we've been announcing our exploration results in news releases. And, as well, we had our Lacsha property receive its drill permit — so that's ready to be optioned out. 

And we have about 16 different projects right now and one royalty coming in. So think about this… we have six properties that are optioned out. The rest are our own projects that we’re at different levels of exploration. And the interesting part is we just announced that we are boots-on-the-ground at Para; we just got there and we’ve already done some initial work.

But we never step onto any property until we get a community agreement. And I think that's something really amazing and different for Latin Metals is that we really want the communities that we work in to want us to be there. 

And so before we start doing any exploration, we make these community agreements either by giving them agricultural equipment, irrigation hoses, or helping them out with the schools and education programs or in the women's network. So I think that's something really unique.

I started out about three years ago with Latin Metals, part-time. And slowly, Keith Henderson, our CEO, asked me to do a little bit more and a little bit more. And now I'm here full-time, and I could not be more excited for 2023 because we think we've laid the groundwork in 2022 in announcing that we have AngloGold (NYSE: AU) and Barrick (NYSE: GOLD) as partners. 

And like you said, their catalysts are probably drilling in Q2 or Q3. And there's a lot of things happening with them but also with our own exploration and optioning out our properties to other partners.

Gerardo Del Real: Well, let me commend you, first off, on your community relations work. And look, a lot of companies underestimate the value of the social license. They’ll make a discovery — it might be a significant one — and they’ll come to realize that they should have done a little bit more work on making sure they were actually wanted in the community and that they were being responsible in dealing with the various communities they're in. So I commend you and the team for that approach.

Let's talk about some of those major partners. You mentioned a couple there. I want to talk about what the next couple of quarters hold and what shareholders, and potentially new shareholders, can expect. I know that you have a webinar on February 16th, which we’ll provide a link to so everyone can sign up for it. 

I encourage anyone that's interested in the space that wants multiple shots at a significant discovery across multiple commodities — whether it's copper, whether it's gold, and, frankly, a team that knows how to execute the prospect generator model — I encourage you all to sign up and spend half an hour doing some due diligence. 

It might prove worthy with the multiple catalysts coming up. I'll let you set the groundwork here for the next couple of quarters, Elyssia.

Elyssia Patterson: Yes, like I said, we have a couple of partners; one being Libero Copper & Gold (TSX-V: LBC)(OTC: LBCMF) where they’re busy working away with Ian Slater at Esperanza. And Gerardo, I don't know if you know this but it had the third best copper intersection in 2018. So I think it's going to be really hard for them not to hit something. 

Gerardo Del Real: It's funny you mentioned that. Ian and I, and the team at Libero, were talking a couple of weeks ago at the Vancouver Resource Investment Conference about that exact drill hole. So yeah, I was actually aware, and I'm really excited that they're getting back out there and that that's going to see the drill bit as well. 

Elyssia Patterson: Yes, it’s really exciting because they're working to get a drill permit and getting everything organized for them. I can't really read the future but I'm hoping that, if everything works out for them, they'll probably be drilling in Q3 or Q4. They're hoping because they have to pay underlining vendors. 

So all of these companies want to start drilling and exploring right away because they want to find something. And especially with AngloGold and Barrick who've both done a lot of exploration. They give us information every quarter, a lot of data, and we're just going through the data and seeing what we'll come up with. But they have drill permits submitted and we're looking to drill potentially in Q2 or Q3.

Gerardo Del Real: So we have, potentially, a setup where you might see drilling in Q2, which is right around the corner. You might also see drilling in Q3, and you might also see drilling in Q4. And that's just with the three current partners. 

I mentioned your business model. Can you explain that a bit because I know that Keith and you and the team are always working behind the scenes to attract quality partners to, again, provide everyone with multiple shots on goal for discovery, which, frankly, is why we're all in this space.

Elyssia Patterson: Yeah, that's a great question. I like to say this: we have a lot of different projects all at different stages. So we have currently three projects looking for partners but we are still always doing exploration with our other properties. 

Like I said, we don't go to them until we get a community agreement. But once we do, we start working. And then, we wait for results on one and then we work on another one. So we're constantly doing our exploration, especially in Peru.

Mirador — I don't know if you know that one but that's a really interesting project that we picked up in Argentina — it’s sedimentary copper and something really unique that Eduardo Leon, our exploration manager, brought to the table. Honestly, he's been picking some of these and it's really interesting… he's hit on some homeruns so far. 

We’ve found a lot of high mineralization of copper so far with our press releases that we've announced. So I think that's something really good that we're picking properties, picking locations, and we have a drill permit.

And this is interesting… with the community agreements that we have in place, our drill permit took about six months from initial application to acceptance. And people are like, ‘Oh, that's a really long time.’ But actually, it's really quick in Peru, like super-duper quick!

So I think that's something that we're laying this out right by engaging the communities. That property is looking for a partner and it also has a drill permit. So if we do find a partner, technically, that could be drilling in Q4 too.

Gerardo Del Real: So just to be clear, multiple big-time partners, partner-funded exploration, multiple commodities with a strong focus on copper and gold and potentially working on adding to the already three drill programs that we all anticipate this year. Do I have all of that right?

Elyssia Patterson: Yes, you know what… that is it! And maybe, we’d like to have some more permits with our properties so when the majors come in — these tier-one mining companies — they can start drilling immediately.

Gerardo Del Real: Looking forward to chatting again. Thank you so much again for setting the table. It's going to be an exciting 2023, and hopefully we can do this again soon, Elyssia. I appreciate your time.

Elyssia Patterson: Thank you. And if anyone wants to hear a little bit more about Latin Metals and see me and Keith chat about Latin Metals and everything about the prospect generator model, please tune in to our webinar on February the 16th.

Gerardo Del Real: Excellent, thanks so much. Appreciate it!

Elyssia Patterson: Thank you. Always a pleasure!

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