Categories: Energy
Topics: Lithium Stocks

Q2 Metals Corp. (TSX-V: QTWO)(OTC: QUEXF) VP Exploration Neil McCallum on Hitting the Longest Spodumene-Pegmatite Interval To-Date at the Flagship Cisco Lithium Project, James Bay, Quebec, with a Look Ahead to 2025 Drilling

 

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the VP of Exploration for Q2 Metals — Mr. Neil McCallum. Neil, everytime you're on, I’m congratulating you. And congratulations are in order again. 

347.1 meters at 1.35% lithium, including 30 meters at 1.76% lithium at the Cisco project. 

Interesting market reaction; I suspect it's a one-day event. We saw this the last time we chatted a bit off-air but, again, congrats. You have to be absolutely pleased with the way the drilling campaign at Cisco has unfolded.

Neil McCallum: Absolutely. We are well on our way to finishing up this season, well, the summer season’s analytics… so this is nearing the end of things. And although this is later in the season… we announced holes 18 and 10… all great news; hole 21 was in-between so we knew it was going to be good. And this is now our longest interval to-date at Cisco.  

I think this is likely going to be the most significant drill hole in terms of grade-times-width. But it's all just confirming the story and building the story. We are very much looking forward to this winter's program; any questions on that forthcoming program? 

Gerardo Del Real: I absolutely want to get into it. You still have assays pending, and I know the team is excited about getting going for an expanded drilling campaign. Can you speak to that a bit?

Neil McCallum: Yes, like I said, we have three more holes that'll be released as they come in, so we’re not too worried about that. In terms of this winter, we'll be getting back out there as soon as we can, keeping in mind the winter conditions. 

That's likely going to be late January where we’ll be adding the first rig. The second rig will likely be added in early February. We are then likely getting a third rig near the end of the winter as the daylight hours get longer. 

We have enough cash to execute all winter until mid April when we'll take a break and then get back out there again in the summer. With the share price where it is, even though things didn't respond super well, we're still well above the warrant pricing. 

We're seeing money roll in day by day on the warrant exercises… so that's keeping us more than well-funded for the winter program.

Gerardo Del Real: Well, I am one of the happy shareholders exercising my 30-cent warrants and so ‘good work’ on that front. Tell me about the cash position; what is that looking like now?

Neil McCallum: Good question. We haven't done a roll call for a couple of weeks but we are likely going to be in that C$6M to C$8M range in terms of available funds to do the drilling this winter. 

I don't think we'll even have a chance to spend as much as we've got with logistics being the way they are with a helicopter-bound program. We're a little bit reluctant to do too much ahead of the three rigs so we're going to limit it to that, which is still going to get us a lot of information. 

We're going to be turning the rigs all winter long and basically doubling, or more, the strike length roughly north-south. And again, roughly doubling things east-west in terms of the total width of this thing. There are so many targets to hit up this winter.

Gerardo Del Real: With both you and Patriot Battery Metals, obviously, outlining a world-class resource at the respective projects, I have to believe there's interest from majors and chemical companies and the other groups in the James Bay area. Are you starting to get those phone calls? Can you chat about that at all?

Neil McCallum: Yes, and although we can't say too much publicly at this point, there has definitely been a lot of interest and lots of people knocking on our door. I think it's hard not to ignore the results so far. 

Some folks want us to be a little bit more advanced so that's driving some of that anticipation to get a larger program done this winter and into the summer so that we can prove things up in the ground for those parties that are interested. And then, we can execute something. 

We believe it is in our best interest as a company to increase our value with the money we have at-hand right now, which is more than enough to complete a large winter program. And I expect we'll see some great results this winter. Time will tell… but we're really excited to get into it.

Gerardo Del Real: Are you looking to step-out significantly in the winter program?

Neil McCallum: Eventually we will. Most likely, we'll stick with the 100 to 200 meter step-outs in all directions to the south and to the east. But I don't think it's wise to go too far out. 

We can but I think, so far, it has worked out really well for us doing more of a grid-based program and, really, just a methodical program of stepping out 200 meters and really tying this in together. Eventually, once we find the zone we want to focus on and build a resource, we'll implement the latter. But that's a topic for a little ways down the road.

Gerardo Del Real: Well, champagne problems and good conversations to have. I'm excited for the remaining assays; I'm excited for the winter program. I think you're going to close 2024 in very strong fashion.

I can't help but notice that a lot of the lithium names look to have bottomed, and the equities are finally starting to turn back up. I look forward to a really robust and exciting 2025. Again, I think James Bay is going to continue to emerge as the next great North American battery hub. And clearly, Cisco has a role to play.

Neil McCallum: Yes, there's a lot to be said for the quality of James Bay projects in their scale, grade, and access to infrastructure. It has a lot going for it.

Gerardo Del Real: Neil, always a pleasure. Thank you again for your time.

Neil McCallum: Thank you, Gerardo.  

Gerardo Del Real: Chat soon. 

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