Transcript
Automated transcript · Written by software from the replay's audio. It can mishear names and figures; the replay is the record.
0:01 Okay, we are now live. Hello everyone and thank you for joining us for another live Pinnacle Update. Today we are joined by Bob Archer to get his commentary on today's news. I have some questions for Bob, but if you happen to have any, please submit them using the chat feature and we can address them at the end. As always, this event is being recorded and will be available shortly after we conclude. So Bob, based off this morning's news, obviously we want to talk about El Potrero Underground Hole 26068, which came back with visible gold and a peak of 58.2 grams per tonne gold and 631 grams per tonne silver. And it sits about 15 metres down dip of your earlier 26035 intercept. So my question is, what does that kind of grade continuity tell you about the Pinos-Kwate system? And why does it matter at this stage of the program?
0:50 Well, there are a couple of things, Kyle. You know, getting that sort of consistency of grade, because Hole 35 hit 59.2 grams per tonne gold. And, you know, close to there, we had some underground channel samples that averaged 50.3 grams. So, seeing that kind of continuity with the high grades is very encouraging. And the fact that they're 15 meters apart, as you put it on average, is important in the sense that, although it might not be all that far, this program was never about building tons.
1:38 The underground workings are relatively small and the holes are very closely spaced. So this was all about learning as much as we could about the mineralising system, what the mineralisation looks like, what that grade distribution is actually like. And so to be able to repeat those kinds of grades in a fairly consistent fashion within one area is important because it tells us a lot about the mineralization. And the gold, even though it's visible, it's still very, very fine. And then with the higher silver grades, you're getting good silver sulfides, which are a little bit more visible. And that's where we were able to observe that in the core when the guys identified that they wanted to get this off to the assay lab you know quickly enough to get the results back. So, you know, that's why we got results for hole 68, whereas, you know, on the regular assay procedure, we're only up to hole 53. So, you know, we still have a bunch that are pending, and we may go back and drill some follow-up holes in this particular area as well.
2:53 So seeing that continuity gives us a lot of confidence
2:58 in terms of putting together an internal resource and then ultimately on stoke planning and definition for mining down the road. So it's really important in that regard. Now in the press release, it's noted that holes intersect in the full width of the vein are returning much stronger results than those catching only the fringes, which suggests the mineralization outside the workings is still intact. Can you walk us through what that observation could mean for the overall size of the opportunity here? Well, if you think about it, we have these underground workings, which for the most part are just like tunnels. They're maybe 3 to 4 meters across and up and down.
3:47 And for the most part, they're inside the vein. And so the old timers, when they were mining this back in the 1980s,
3:57 they would already have mined out the core part of the vein in a lot of areas. And so some of that material is already gone. It's already been mined out within the... And so, you know, when we set the drill up and we drill outwards into the walls or up into the ceiling or even down into the floor of the tunnel, we're basically checking the outer perimeter of the vein. We're still getting good information, but what we're finding now with holes like these is that where we can drill from, say, the end of the tunnel, drill it out into the wall and along the vein, either horizontally or up and down, drill it into an area that has not been mined at all.
4:45 And we're finding that this good mineralization is still intact.
4:50 So what that tells us is that, you know, once it comes time to mining this, that as we step out and expand the existing workings, that, you know, the rest, or there should be good mineralization, or there is good mineralization outside of those workings. It gives us a better sense of the overall size of these particular zones. Assays are now in hand for up to hole 26053 and 706 holes drilled so far. How are these underground results shaping your thinking as you head toward an internal resource estimate and a preliminary mine plan later this year? Well, the grades that we're seeing in all of these holes and what we were just talking about, whether the holes are drilled on the fringes or if they're in the core, they're giving us a good sense of the grade distribution.
5:50 And with some of the holes stepping out along the underground workings,
5:57 the size of the mineralized zones has increased over what we knew when we started just based on the channel sampling. And so there's the zones are larger, and we're getting a better sense of what the grade might be. So once we start modeling all of this and putting putting it all together, then I think it'll give us a very good sense of what these zones look like and how to approach them from a mine planning standpoint. And the drilling's not done. The drill is set to move over to the Dulce de Mayo mine, starting with hole 26084, and surface drilling is expected to kick off in October. What are you most hoping to learn from testing veins like El Capulin and La Estrella that have never been drilled before?
6:50 Well, what we've found just from the surface sampling that the guys have been doing, and they're very small underground workings on both of those veins. Al Capulin is slightly different in terms of what the vein looks like. And so it may well have represented a separate phase of mineralization from the dose to mile vein that we're drilling now, and it's still well mineralized.
7:17 But it has not been drilled, as you mentioned. So, we will need to drill that to get a better sense of what that vein really looks like, the continuity of grade within that, and the overall size and shape of those zones as well. And similarly with Estrella, Estrella is 500 meters away and about 500 meters vertically higher. And the fact that it's still mineralized at that elevation is encouraging because with these types of systems, they are often not vertically continuous below a certain level. And so seeing good mineralization at that elevation suggests that we still have quite a bit of mineralization protected below us.
8:10 We're looking forward to drilling that one as well. We also had very good grades there from the surface sampling that we did on that one as well. And we've talked at length about this, but for people new to the story, Bob, El Potrero sits within 35 kilometers of 4 operating mines and already has a plant on site that can be refurbished. How do those advantages factor into the path toward near-term production? And what does the timeline look like from where you stand today? Well, for one thing, in part because of the surrounding mines, you know, we have good infrastructure. It's, you know, we have roads right to the project, power line within 3.3 kilometers, which will just extend down to the plant.
8:55 There's water right there, river running by.
8:59 And so that's, you know, that's 1 good thing. You know, From a geological standpoint, having 4 operating mines within that radius is very important. It suggests that this is a well mineralized district and we know that. So that certainly bodes well for the longer term potential of our project. And lastly, those 4 mines are all polymetallic mines. They're not Gold-Silver mines like El Potrero. And what we've discovered just earlier this year is that we do have polymetallic mineralization on the Petrero property as well, particularly down in the southwest corner, which is actually only about 4km straight line distance to the Topia mine. So it's probably part and parcel of the same, of the Topia district of that same mineralising system.
9:57 And, you know, as we start to develop that polymetallic mineralisation down the road, it will require a different type of processing than what we're looking at right now from the Gold Silver system. And so it's in the early days, there will be an opportunity to custom mill some of that material at one of the neighboring mines prior to even getting to the point where we'll be looking at whether or not to set up our own standalone operation for that. So it's all very encouraging for the long-term potential of the project. Now, last question for you today, with Oromet on board as lead project financier and the earning structure that takes you from 50% to potentially 100% interest, How are you thinking about funding and ownership as the project advances toward a production decision?
10:51 Well, the fact that Oramed has committed to funding the startup financing, the funds that we need for getting it into production is terrific. You know, they've been very supportive so far. They've put $600,000 into the equity financings that we've done so far. So that certainly shows a good level of support And we're very appreciative of that. So once we get to a point where everyone was comfortable enough with what we're seeing, and we'll make a formal production decision, and then we can start to draw down on that financing to procure the equipment that we need to rebuild the plant and extend the power line and get the water line going and things like that. So that will all be done over the course of the next 16 to 18 months, somewhere in that time frame.
11:51 And the biggest wild card in terms of time to production is really the permitting. We are working on that, and I hope to have an update out on that in the not too distant future. But there are a number of different permits that are required and so everything's moving forward in parallel. But at the end of the day, once everything is filed with the various government agencies and it goes gets into their hands, then, you know, that's really not under our control anymore. So that's that's the biggest wildcard in terms of, you know, the final the final go ahead. But at this point in time, we're still targeting somewhere around the end of 2027, or perhaps Q1 of 2028. Great, Bob, congratulations on the continued drilling success. We look forward to hearing more updates, but thank you for taking the time out of the day to update the market.
12:45 Thanks very much, Kyle. Have a good one. Bye now.
