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Q2 Metals Corp. (TSX-V: QTWO)(OTC: QUEXF) VPE Neil McCallum on Acquiring 100% of the Large-Scale Cisco Lithium Property in James Bay, Quebec
Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the Vice President of Exploration for Q2 Metals, Mr. Neil McCallum. Neil, how are you today?
Neil McCallum: I'm doing really good thanks.
Gerardo Del Real: Well listen, let's get right into it. Congratulations are in order. I want to be clear, we are waiting on assays from Mia. We had an update recently. We're going to talk Mia in a bit because I want to make sure that people understand that Mia is most definitely still at the forefront of Q2's plans for the near term midterm and long-term. But this acquisition of the large scale Cisco Lithium property in James Bay, you have the right to acquire up to 100%.
And I got to say, I've spent all morning digging through the news release. I want to congratulate you because I know you and the network played a large part in getting this project in. But I also have to congratulate Alicia as well, the president and CEO, because when I look through the legalese and the way that the deal is structured and I want to have her on next week to speak to it, I see that expertise, that background coming into play. So well done all the way around. The market clearly likes it. You're up over a hundred percent on the news. I had to have you on. You'll tell me why Cisco, why now, and how the opportunity presented itself.
Neil McCallum: Good. Yeah, I think the merits of the project I think are pretty apparent right away. I think the news really lays that out really well in terms of the width of pegmatite. It's obviously not one continuous pegmatite, you can see that from the cross-section. However, just the amount that has been drilled and really only three holes that have tested the main body that they found. There's also right nearby a bunch of surface samples that could immediately increase that strike length to a kilometer. And then not only that, there's a few maybe on parallel trends or what have you. So yeah, I can't wait to get out there in the summer and unlock things because they really just scratched the surface for us.
And then back to the relationships piece, I think it's clear to say that the property vendors for the original Mia property liked what we did and they've got, there's a lot of mutual respect between the two groups and they thought, who can we put this to and make sense to advance this project properly? And I think that we were high on their list and yeah, we made it work. It's been a tough few weeks here, but really happy with the way things came in.
Gerardo Del Real: Well, listen, when we talk about district scale, there's an untested cumulative 37 and a half kilometers along three separate trends. You've had two historical drill holes that returned 115 meters at 1.21% lithium. Now I should say that wasn't continuous, right? That was about five separate pegmatite intervals in whole 23-05. Impressive nonetheless. That adds tonnes really, really quick. You add another hit at 57.8 meters at 1.27% within three separate pegmatite intervals. And so that is a heck of a historic database to draw from limited, but it gives you an idea as to scale and grade, at least in this part of the trend, right?
Neil McCallum: Yep, exactly. And this is just, they focused all those drill holes in one small area. So there's the whole 30 plus kilometers of trend is almost virtually untested. This whole trend really had been flying under the radar for most people, and the vendors had enough foresight to head out there and check it out, and those pegmatites at surface, they could see the spodumene. So it's kind of a no-brainer from there, once you see those big outcrops.
Gerardo Del Real: You touched on the outcrops and I got to mention something else. Holes five and six, those were pretty much from surface, right?
Neil McCallum: Yeah, and that's just it is that having the mineralization start at surface is going to build tonnes quickly with not as much drilling too, right? So that's going to advance things quite quickly. And as well, it seems like from the two holes that were drilled from the same pad, more drilling is going to confirm this, but it appears so far that it's going to be somewhat shallowly dipping, which is good for potential economics down the road for putting together a mineable resource, which we're pretty happy with as well.
Gerardo Del Real: Let's talk Mia. I want to pivot back to Mia because obviously as a shareholder I would much rather have two co-flagships or two high quality projects of merit. There is a third project that we won't get into today, in the portfolio as well, but can we talk about Mia and how things are coming along on that front? I know the expectation, unjustifiably so, was always for Corvette-like widths, which this just wasn't that type of deposit, and there's a lot of trend left to explore, but judging from the latest release, I can clearly see where you have a good understanding of the mineralization and I can clearly see where some holes missed and maybe that's not the smartest use of shareholder dollars to continue to chase the trend where the holes are missing, right?
Neil McCallum: Yeah, you nailed it for sure. I think there's a lot left to uncover at Mia in terms of the property as a whole. We were really excited about getting into this program just based on the small amount of work, which was only a few samples, and then looking at all those outcrops that got us excited, but just the way that those things are shallowly dipping, it didn't meet our expectations and it's still going to be a project that we're going to put money towards.
But I think as a drill bit, now that we have this new Cisco property, it's going to be our focus for the drill bit, but I really want to get out to the Mia property this summer and do more surface exploration because when we had the property last year at Mia, we were prevented from getting out there all summer. And keep in mind, we only had two weeks on the ground before we could start drilling. So there's a whole lot left to do to check out the property at large and the ratios that we can see that tell us that we're in the right place for these types of pegmatites, they're all quite positive for more than one trend. And we've only just scratched the surface on some of those at Mia.
So it's not going to be where most of our capital goes, but it's still going to be something that I think can generate some interesting results and who knows what we'll find that. I'm looking forward to the summer on that one.
Gerardo Del Real: Well, let me ask you this, Neil. It seems clear to me that the focus is going to be on Cisco, at least in the very near term. It also seems clear to me that you clearly believe Mia is a project of merit. Would you be open given the fact that it appears the lithium spot price has bottomed and it cut violently to the downside, I suspect it's going to be violent to the upside as well, because that's just the nature of the lithium space. Would you be receptive to having conversations if a group wanted to do some work on that project or joint venture it to make sure it doesn't just sit?
Neil McCallum: Oh, for sure. Yeah, we've already been talking to a few other potential partners on the project to move things forward, so we'll just keep those conversations going and unlock the value one way or another. But certainly, like I said, the Cisco property is going to see most of our attention going forward, and that's pretty obvious why when you read the news release for sure.
Gerardo Del Real: Excellent. Well listen, as soon as you have an exploration program outlined, I am looking forward to having you back on. I'm looking forward to having Alicia on to talk about the structure of the deal because I know a lot went into it. And again, congrats. Sometimes the market doesn't get it. Sometimes the market does. It clearly gets this one. So good work.
Neil McCallum: Yeah. Thank you.
Gerardo Del Real: All right, Neil, chat soon. Take care.
Neil McCallum: Great. Thank you.
Gerardo Del Real: Cheers.
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