Categories: Energy
Topics: General Energy

Q2 Metals (TSX-V: QTWO)(OTC: QUEXF) VP Exploration Neil McCallum on Drilling Update Ahead of Assays at Flagship Mia Lithium Project in James Bay, Quebec

 

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, it's great to have you back on. I think it's timely. I wanted to get an update out to shareholders. How are you first and foremost?

Neil McCallum: I'm great, thanks.

Gerardo Del Real: Well, let's get to it. Look, I think the selloff in the stock last week to the drill program update was tough to see as a shareholder and, frankly, I think way overdone. So again, thank you for making time and coming on. 

You provided an update on the Mia lithium property. And I wanted you to come on and just provide some context because you would've thought that what you told the market was that you didn't find anything visually in those first five holes, which was not the case. So can you provide a bit of context about what you're seeing, what you expected, and what comes next?

Neil McCallum: Okay, for sure. So that's a really good question. And frankly, we're getting a few direct calls on that. And I think what we've told everybody is the same in that we are early in our drill program. The first phase of drilling is planned at 10,000 meters, and we reported on a fraction of that. 

Also not to say that anything we did report on is anything that's negative. We did find spodumene pegmatite in those drill holes. And those intervals that were reported as pegmatite are not insignificant by any means. 

I think part of what we're faced with is an expectation of three-digit, 100-meter-plus intervals of pegmatite from other well-known deposits in the region like Patriot’s Corvette discovery. And that's a little bit of an anomaly, even in James Bay, to have that kind of thick interval of pegmatite. 

A lot of the deposits in James Bay are also these series of stacked pegmatite bodies. And some folks will speak negatively to that. But when it comes down to it, it can be mined just as easily as one large body with ore sorting and all sorts of things like that. It makes no difference as far as I can read or I can tell from examples. 

So we're still enthusiastic with the way things are going. We have a lot more work to do, and we're going to be back on the project after the Christmas break finishing up the program.

Gerardo Del Real: As far as the depth and the continuity of mineralization, what you've seen visually, at least, how satisfied are you thus far or are you hoping and vectoring in towards hopefully something shallower and more continuous?

Neil McCallum: In terms of depth, that's not a problem for what we're doing on this program. We're taking a few of these holes a little bit deeper than what we would normally do later in a program just so we can pick up any pegmatites that are deeper. 

And then, we can follow those, the dip, and figure out the structure of that as they trend toward the surface. And we'd be following up as that goes toward the surface. 

From what we're seeing right now, the way that these pegmatites are oriented, they look fairly shallow… so like about a 20 to 30 degree dip… which means you can add tonnes fairly easily at a shallow depth. So we're encouraged by that.

Gerardo Del Real: Excellent. What comes next, Neil?

Neil McCallum: We're going to keep drilling. We've got two rigs onsite now, and we're going to keep them until roughly mid-December. And then, we'll be back once the ground is nice and frozen in January into February. 

We have a lot of money in the bank still so it's not like we need to refinance at these rates. I think that despite what the share price is doing, I know it's tough for those folks that maybe did get in at the C$0.50 level, but we are confident and we're going to continue working and building that value.

Gerardo Del Real: I'm glad you mentioned the treasury. I think that point is critical, right? We have tax loss selling season, it's the end of the year, the holidays are coming up. And, frankly, raising capital at current prices would not be ideal. 

I was fortunate enough to get in on the C$0.10 round. I wrote a check at C$0.50 and sitting on all of those shares and absolutely looking forward to more news. When do you anticipate assays to start coming in because, obviously, grade is going to be important, right?

Neil McCallum: Yep, for sure. And on that, we are going to be reporting on our ground sampling program that we did from the mapping in September. That should be out within the next few weeks. 

Following that, we'll be putting out a news release on the current drilling. We'll likely do that either one more before the end of the program or one large one at the end of the program. And then, the assays will be in in the new year the way that the labs are trending on their turnaround times. That should be into January for the results of the current drilling.

Gerardo Del Real: Excellent. Well, listen, Neil, thanks for the update. I'm looking forward to having you back on. Appreciate the context and we'll chat soon.

Neil McCallum: Okay, sounds good. Thanks.

Gerardo Del Real: Cheers.

Neil McCallum: Cheers.

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