Categories: Energy
Topics: General Energy / Lithium Stocks

Q2 Metals (TSX-V: QTWO)(OTC: QUEXF) VP Exploration Neil McCallum on Advancing the Mia and Cisco Lithium Projects in James Bay, Quebec; Plus a Look Ahead to 2H 2024 Drilling

 

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 great, thanks. How are you?

Gerardo Del Real: I'm well. Listen, next to Patriot Battery Metals, Q2 Metals is, I believe, my second or third-largest lithium holding. We talked a bit off-air about the upcoming drilling season. And I want to get to that here in a bit. 

But we talked about how we think that this summer is going to be the summer that we should have had last year, right? And so I want to get into the last couple of news releases.

You announced assay results from the Mia property. And then, obviously, you completed the drill-core reevaluation for the Cisco lithium property. Let's start with Mia. Tell me about the results and how you and the company felt about Mia and the path forward there.

Neil McCallum: Of course. So Mia is an interesting project. It's definitely a puzzle that we're unraveling as we go. I think that there's a certain amount of expectations that were set maybe a year ago at the outset just given the amount of strike length we have on the trend. And it's up until the drill program before you really know what you have.

So what we have there is not a Corvette CV5-scale discovery at this point. But I wouldn't consider it disappointing results even though it's not up to par compared to some others in James Bay, I'll say, maybe yet.

What we have so far is good when you compare it to other lithium exploration projects across the country. When you look at Manitoba, NWT, and Ontario, it's along that scale of results for widths and grades. So we have defined a nice little zone that we're going to be building out there, and there's always the potential, being in James Bay, that it could be better.

Gerardo Del Real: Absolutely.

Neil McCallum: But I think that goes back to the comment you made about it being the summer we should have had last year. Because of the forest fires last year, we were unable to get to the project pretty much all summer until September. And then, we launched right into the drill program. 

So we have a lot more room to go on the project to potentially make some new and significant discoveries along the larger portions of the property… so that's going to be an exciting part of what we're going to announce pretty soon.

Gerardo Del Real: Excellent. Well, I'm looking forward to that. I know the last time we spoke, you mentioned that you're definitely receptive to finding a good partner that can advance that property. Is that still the case being that you're about to get on the ground here at Cisco, which, of course, everybody is excited about?

Neil McCallum: Yes, Cisco is definitely getting our attention. However, we're going to be doing work at Mia. And if we want to partner with somebody on that, those are options that we're looking at as well.

But I think there's a lot of room to improve what we've found so far at Mia just given things being so early-stage and not spending as much time on the ground as we would've liked to given the situation last year. So I'm pretty happy with these results so far.

Gerardo Del Real: Let's talk about the completion of the drill-core reevaluation. I had a good, respectful dialogue — which is always awesome when you can have good, respectful dialogue — with someone on Twitter, or X, the other day that follows the company. This was an early shareholder who got in at higher prices. And we talked about the potential of Cisco, and there was some back and forth about the 100-plus meters in that Hole-5.

And I want to be clear, the company has always made it clear that that wasn't continuous; it was cumulative. And so I want to stress that up front here in the interview. But look, when you have that kind of early success with those first six drill holes, you have to be excited about getting on the ground there. 

Neil, tell me a little bit about the approach and just how the team is feeling about getting out there.

Neil McCallum: There's an incredible amount of excitement for our group to get to Cisco just knowing that we've really only scratched the surface on those drill holes.

The first three, unfortunately, that were drilled by the property vendor were in the wrong direction. It's always hard to know how these pegmatites dip when you're looking at them from surface, especially when they're so large as you don't have that contact relationship oftentimes with the host-rock at surface.

So it's 50/50 and they went in the wrong direction. And then, they followed up the last three holes of the program in the correct direction and pulled up some really interesting results. They didn't even finish that wider interval. It ended in mineralized spodumene-bearing pegmatite. And, of course, we verified that. We knew that from looking at the holes in our due diligence.

But there's even potential, I think, for some of those other holes, like Hole-5, that was along the same drill pad… it didn't have a lot of pegmatite near the end of the hole but I think that there's a potential that there was another pegmatite that they hadn't even reached yet. So there's a lot of potential for increasing the value of the Cisco project, as well, with more work. 

And on top of that, it's a similar story to Mia that the property vendors really just scratched the surface in one small area on that project and didn't yet test the entire potential of the trend all of the way along the property. So that one is wide open for additional pegmatite zones that we can follow up with drilling as well as the currently drilled zone.

Gerardo Del Real: When do you anticipate getting on the ground, Neil? I mean, I think at current prices, the stock presents a pretty compelling speculation if you believe, like I believe, that the lithium price is going to slowly but surely continue to rebound and that there's going to be exploration success.

The other thing that stood out to me about Hole-5 is the fact that it starts at three meters, right? It's relatively shallow. And so that's got me really, really excited. How do you see it playing out here over the next several months, and when do we get to actual drilling?

Neil McCallum: Absolutely, we're going to be on the ground as soon as we can. There's some local hunting and fishing trapping that's happening near the property; the goose hunting that the local First Nations hold in high-esteem. So we have to respect that. And we will. 

So we'll be on the ground as soon as we can and getting drills ready. We'll announce a full program update on what the plans are. But that's as much as I'll say now. But we're obviously very excited.

And to that point of the share price, since acquiring the project, I think, because we haven't had much news, there's a little bit of interest that has waned. And that's unfortunate. But it just represents, I think, an opportunity for people to get back into the shares on the market and in anticipation of work within the next couple of months here.

Gerardo Del Real: I couldn't agree more. And again, let me be transparent; I am completely biased. I wrote a check at C$0.10 per share. I then wrote a check at C$0.25. And then, I wrote a check at C$0.50 per share. 

I am happy to hold all of those shares and happy to write another check if the opportunity comes up, hopefully, at higher prices. That's always the game plan, right? But I am most definitely looking to see Mia potentially joint ventured or advanced and absolutely thrilled to see what Cisco is able to deliver. 

Anything else you want to add to that, Neil?

Neil McCallum: No, nothing else to add… just that we cannot be more excited about Cisco.

Gerardo Del Real: Fantastic. Thank you so much for that update. Looking forward to getting you back on here when we get some more concrete details on drilling at Cisco. Thank you, Neil.

Neil McCallum: Yep. Let's do it.

Gerardo Del Real: Cheers.

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