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Meet the man and the company that have created one of the most innovative and risk-deterrent concepts in mining exploration and development.
Alianza Minerals Ltd. (ANZ) (
TSX-V.ANZ,
OTC:TARSF,
Forum) is an early-stage exploration company – and a prospect or project generator – working to find and develop a sound economic base and precious metal deposits. The long-term goal of the company is to advance new projects by joint-venturing alongside enthusiastic partners with the goal of making major discoveries. As part of the “Hybrid Model”, Alianza also pursues its own self-funded exploration programs on projects which have not yet partnered. This gives its shareholders and investors
maximum exposure to exploration success.
Stockhouse Media’s Dave Jackson was joined by the company’s visionary CEO Jason Weber – a geologist with over 25 years of experience in the minerals exploration industry – to discuss Alianza’s unique hybrid project generator business model, the latest ‘gamechanging’ drill results from its Haldane Silver Project in the Yukon, and a variety of timely and newsworthy topics about the company.
TRANSCRIPT BELOW:
SH: To start off, Jason, can we get a quick update for our investor audience and your Alianza shareholders on any new company developments, especially in the wake of COVID-19?
JW: Well, I think COVID is going on a year now and we're, I think we've all sort of learned to adapt in the COVID reality, getting our field programs underway and completed with, with all the new precautions and safety measures we have to take. And I think know a good example of that is, was us and just some of the impacts maybe that it's had on our business, that we got our whole Dane drilling program in, at the very end of the season. Last year it was a boat as late as we could go in the Yukon before it just got too wintery to continue. So I think that's some of the impact. I think now, as we look forward plans or preparations, that sort of thing are being made much, much earlier, just because it does take a little bit more to execute a program.
Now you have to be mindful of the COVID situation in, in everything you do. So I think that's probably the biggest development as far as how we execute our business. I think in the background though, it's really provided us a lot of opportunities with projects coming in the door that, you know, will be the next suite of, of of joint venture bubble optional, these that we'll find partners for. So we've done a lot of evaluations over, over the last few months here looking at new projects to bring on.
SH: What initially drew you to Alianza and attracted you to the hybrid project generator business model?
JW: Oh, I think the draw to Alianza really was a it's chairman, Mark Brown. And I had known Mark for years. We'd often talked about working together and I'll throw in Mark Blythe to that mix as well. He was the CEO of Tarsus resources who was part of the merger that formed Alianza. And so Mark and I had both marks and I had wanted to work together. So it was kind of a neat scenario where three of us could come together, put a couple of companies together, formality ones, and both companies that we put together, Australia Gold and Tarsus Resources were project generators. So it was just an easy fit to continue with that business model. I think the only thing that changed really was that our focus became Yukon and, and Nevada rather than a then so much South American-based expiration.
So I think that was the real draw in that way. And I, as far as the hybrid aspect of the model goes, one of the knocks against the project generator model is that you are a slave to the timeline of your partners. So if a partner doesn't want to start a program until the fall, because that fits their schedule better, they're the operator with that. So we really wanted to have at least one project that we would be in full control over timing how the program is executed, just to make sure we had good news flow for our shareholder base. And then of course, if you find something it's you just get that much more exposure to the value of that discovery. So I think that's where the hybrid aspect comes in. Just something that we control it's on our timeline and we are free to joint venture that project out at any at any point. It's and we do have lots of other projects that we can fill in behind it. So it's, it's, it's not a, really a divergence from the model. It's just maybe taking projects a little further than we would normally.
SH: So let’s pivot to recent company news…the company has just announced some intriguing drill results from Haldane Silver Project in the Yukon. Can you tell us a bit more?
JW: Yeah, I would take it a little further than ‘intriguing’ Dave. I would say game-changing for us up in at the Keno district when you look at the keynote deposits that have been historically mined and are now backing into production with electrical resources reaching recently resuming silver production in the Keno district you know, serve a 300 gram per ton, silver cut-off is the standard. So when you look at our projects, you know, we really want to see intersections 300 grand, silver and higher, and obviously over thick widths. And so with our drilling program, we completed in the fall and announced results in late January at our Westfall target. In particular, we had an 8.72-meter intersection that average 311 grams silver, and it had lead and zinc with it as well. That's a fantastic intersection for us.
So that's a nice wide vein. That's at 8.72 meters is the true width of the vein. And I think the proof of concept for us on this drill hole was the fact that this was following up on a 2.2-meter intersection of 320 grams per ton, silver that had been intersected back in 2011 by a previous operator of the project. So the idea, and we know this from talking to the people at Alexco that narrow veins with the right silver mineralogy can be thick beans. You see the right mineralogy, you stick with it, that's a productive vein system. Now you're just looking for thicker parts of it. Well, now we've done that at West fault. So it's a real on a bunch of different levels, it was a really important intersection for everybody we can produce or great intersections or thick woods. And for us, it shows that process really does work where you're targeting narrow, what looked to be narrow veins that you wouldn't normally think of as being all that significant, but they can become significant in a very short distance away.
SH: Can you give us some more details on the earlier silver intersects at Haldane in January. Some very attractive numbers here.
JW: We targeted two areas, the West fault and Middlecoff and Middlecoff is an area that we had been doing some drilling over the last couple of years. Now, we drilled there in 2019 as well. And that was the site of a fair bit of underground development. I think there's about 500 meters of, of underground development here that dates back the most recent work in the 1960s following up the, the vein system at Middlecoff and we're targeting some high grade mineralization there, again, over narrow widths, we had a 35 centimeter intersection that averaged a 996 grams per ton, silver, but we know not too far away from that in some of the underground work, they have a 13.7 meter, a long stretch that's about a meter wide that's averaging seven 75 grams per ton, silver.
So, you go from less than a meter to over a meter pretty quickly, and you can get these over significant widths again, sort of like the West Volt story. So those narrow intersections that we see at Middlecoff, we still find very, very interesting in the program we just completed. We had about 80 grams silver over a few meters. So again very encouraging for us we know about 50 meters to the South or 60 meters to the South there's 2,700 grams per ton, silver over a meter in an underground drill hole from the 1960s. So we'll be stepping out that direction to follow up on this mineralization at middle cough to see what we can put together there.
SH: Can you also give us an update on your 100-percent-owned Horsethief Project in southeast Nevada?
JW: Yeah. So that Horsethief was a program we executed through the sort of the height of COVID last year through the summer. It was we're one of their early companies to actually get programs done especially for companies our size during COVID with all the new protocols in place. And, and we were very fortunate to get that program in. And unfortunately, we drove that with our partner, Hochschild Mining, they funded the whole program. We drilled 10 holes. Unfortunately, the results were not all that different from what was seen on surface and in the past not what Hochschild needed to see to continue on. So they've returned the property to us. There's still a few targets left. We'd like to, to, to test the 10 holes that were drilled, drilled over a very widespread area, testing a number of different targets.
There were a couple styles of mineralization in and around the old area of previous surface work that haven't been tested. And those targets will be, we'll be looking for a partner to, to, to continue on with those. But at this point we don't we don't have any expiration plan for, for horsey for this season, but if we're able to secure partner for that, well, it'll be an easy step to go drilling there. Again, the targets are outlined drill. Permitting's really easy there. It wouldn't take much at all to get that up and running.
SH: Why did Coeur Mining decide to option your Tim Silver Property in the Southern Yukon, and what exploration work are they planning for the Tim Silver project?
JW: So Tim is, as you say, in Southern Yukon. It's just on the north of the Yukon-BC border. So it's on the Yukon side, but the Silver Tip Mine, which core is the owner of and is been doing a tremendous amount of drilling. They've had multiple drill rigs all last summer drilling on, on their deposit at silver tip trying to find the bounds of it. And I don't think they were successful doing that, which is a good thing. It means the deposits just keeps growing in size. But they were looking at some of the other similar targets in the area. And interestingly, back in the days when silver tip was discovered there was two targets, silver tip, and Tim and the discovery was made at silver tip, little bit of work done at Tim.
Some trenching high-grade silver mineralization was found in these trenches. Multi-Instance you know, tens of ounces of silver on surface and in the same rock, same style of mineralization is silver tip. So it was a pretty easy decision, I think, for core to look at that we're only 12 kilometers away. It's an easy if they find something here, it's just basically trucking it back to their facilities at the mine. And it's a real easy deposit to get up and running. And for that reason, it was for us, it was a no brainer to have a core as a partner. It's a, if they make a discovery here, it's just gonna be shipped over to their facilities for processing. And it would be great scenario for us. The work that'll be done this year, we'll likely be opening up some of the old trenches that date back to the 1980s.
Having a look at that mineralization how the rocks that occurs in just with the lens of what they know at silver tip itself there'll be some soldier chem work that'll be done to investigate some of the parts of the property that haven't been adequately tested some mapping. And then if everything goes well, we could potentially have drill targets outlined for late in the year, this year and maybe get one or two drill holes in that's. I mean, that might be a bit of a stretch, but I think that's kind of what we're reaching for.
SH: If you could gaze into your mining crystal ball, where do you see the precious metals market – and specifically silver – headed in the next 12 months?
JW: Well despite the softness that we've seen in the choppiness in the silver and gold market for that matter since really September last year, I do remain very bullish on the precious metals. And I think if you look at where the markets overall are going just all the stimulus that's gone in, in the US and Canada, I just can't see a scenario where it isn't good for gold. And I, I think that there's a bit of a distraction with other Bitcoin you know, the silver squeeze, all these other things that are happening in the background that maybe are taking a bit of the focus away, but I think that's natural. I think that's what happens in, in bull markets. It's never straight up, there's often extended periods of retraction and retreat that just sort of preceded the next leg up in the market.
And I think that's where we are right now. I think we potentially are at the very beginning of that next leg up just with the way things have gone the last couple of days and in the precious metal market. So I love being in silver. I think it's a great place for us to be with, you know, two of our more active projects being high-grade silver targets. I think it positions us really well. But I also think it's going to be great for the base metals. I think coffers, you know, already at it's over $4, I think that's another great place to be. And, and interestingly for us, that's a, that's an area we focused on, on generating some new projects for, for our next wave of, of optionable properties.
SH: It would be remiss of me not to mention your stock has had a bit of a roller coaster ride over the past year…but you’ve still more than doubled it. Yet you’ve said that there’s a real value discrepancy with ANZ’s share price. What can you tell our investor audience regarding the current valuation of your stock and why you think it’s still a good buy right now?
JW: Well, I think if you look at some of the other junior companies active in the Keno district with quite similar projects to their market caps are double and triple what ours is. And I think that's a bit of a function of coming to grips with where Allianz is sort of sits in the Keno district. And, and I think there's a bit of a show me attitude there which I think, I think we've been very successful at doing showing. We truly are dealing with Keno style systems that can, can produce keynote style thicknesses and grades of silver Bain mineralization. So I think we're taking some big steps forward in that regard. And so I think when you look at our company, it's just, we're just starting to get the, the, the story out about Alianza and what we're doing with, you know, efforts like this.
And I, I think it's only going to get stronger as we go forward to our next, I think the other part, you said it was a bit of a roller coaster. I think we do suffer from a little bit of the affliction that being in the Yukon, we're not active, we can't be active again, up on the project till April. And we had planned to be in earlier this year, but I think we just realize putting a new camp in a more centralized location and setting up to be a little longer term at holding now with the, with the recent results will serve as better going forward. So push the program back till April, and I think investors see that with the other opportunities in the market, perhaps they're seeing a chance to get it back into Alianza maybe closer to the to the drill program.
And I think that's why you see a bit of a softness in the share price. So, but like you say, we, I mean, this time a year ago, I think we were at 3 cents we're four times that now, at least so I think that's a great return for anybody who got in a year ago was brave enough to do so at the start of COVID when everything got hit. But I look at just valuing us against some of the pure companies that are in the area. We have a lot of upside and I truly believe in the exploration potential at holding too. I think we can add tremendous amount of value there as we drill out targets such as Westfall.
SH: And lastly, Jason, if there’s anything I’ve overlooked and you’d like to share with our audience, the floor is all yours.
JW: Well, I just maybe segued into it a little bit with my last comment and that there's a perceived softness here in, in our news flow until April, but we are being a project generator. We're always working on a number of different aspects of building the business model and which includes bringing in new projects, looking at new partnerships on, on existing projects. And we've been quite active on both those fronts. So there's a pretty strong possibility that we'll see some new agreements here in the next few months. And that will include projects coming in as well as new partners coming in on projects. So I think there while drilling, won't start at holding till April, I think we will see a steady news flow between now and then, and then just looking at the rest of the year going forward.
We haven't even talked about our twin Canyon project in Colorado, which we're just in the process of getting a drill permit, which we think will allow us to bring a partner in to drill that later this summer. So with the, with the project portfolio we have, and some of the different stages of exploration the projects are at, I think we could see a fair bit of drilling this year, which of course is just every drill hole you undertake…that's another chance at discovery. So I think that's really what the, what the excitement will be for our shareholders as we move through 2021.
For more information, visit
alianzaminerals.com.
FULL DISCLOSURE: This is a paid article produced by Stockhouse Publishing.