Listen as Brad Peters, our President and CEO discusses news from Pacific Empire Minerals Corp (TSXV:PEMC). Read the news titled "PACIFIC EMPIRE OUTLINES DRILL PROGRAM AT PINNACLE PORPHYRY PROJECT" here, https://pemcorp.ca/news/2019/pacific-empire-outlines-drill-program-at-pinnacle-porphyry-project/
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Peter Bell: Hello, I'm Peter Bell and I'm here with Mr. Brad Peters of Pacific Empire Minerals Corp. Hello Brad!
Brad Peters: Hi Peter. How are you today?
Peter Bell: Very well, thanks. Nice to be talking to you. September 11th, 2019 and the company has news out. Headline title, "Pacific Empire outlines drill program at Pinnacle porphyry project". Thank you for the focused headline. It gives us a sense of what next for the company.
Brad Peters: Exactly. That is our plan going forward, to start drilling on that property into November -- once the snow has fallen.
Brad Peters: For that project, we have a 20 hole RC drill program planned.
Peter Bell: Wonderful. Thank you for that, Brad. November, snowfall, British Columbia -- is this the first time with winter drilling for us?
Brad Peters: It's the first time with a winter drilling program in British Columbia. We have experience with with winter drilling in Ontario. We also have experience with other companies, personally.
Brad Peters: We have experience doing induced polarization surveys on this property in the winter.
Brad Peters: In particular, these areas in 2014 when Oz Minerals was our partner -- that was our first first taste of it. It was clear to us at that point that this area is good.
Brad Peters: We're in a topographically low area. It is flat. The winter is a great time to get into these areas. It allows us to operate without having to compromise on where we're drilling. It also provides us with the ability to use snowmobiles and machinery that is a less invasive to move around the property.
Peter Bell: I appreciate you saying it, thank you very much. Looking at one of the maps on the company website for the Pinnacle Project, there's a map with ten kilometer bars. Down in the southeast corner, lower right-hand side of the map. Mount Milligan mine shown as almost five million ounces of gold, proven and probable. The Pinnacle porphyry project appears to be on relatively lower terrain compared to other places marked, like KWANIKA with Serengeti Resources and STARDUST with Sun Metals. Lots to talk about regarding your neighbors, here.
Brad Peters: Certainly.
Peter Bell: Again, please allow me to further emphasize the point you made about the topographical relief and the fact that you are in some of these flatter areas -- on purpose.
Brad Peters: Exactly, you're right.
Brad Peters: As you indicated there is a lot to talk about our neighbors, but I think I can summarize it briefly. In this area, we have rocks known as the HOKUM Intrusive Suite. These rocks are absolutely at Mount Milligan and Kwanika. It demonstrates that these are gold-rich copper porphyries that we're looking at.
Brad Peters: I think the map clearly illustrates that we are on "Main Street".
Brad Peters: One of our exploration hypotheses is, certainly, "If you're looking for large, yet-to-be-discovered porphyry deposits, then you need to you need to have a way to look under cover."
Brad Peters: There isn't a lot of cover on this property. We've been doing seismic work and it's consistent with what we experienced with drilling from our partners in 2015 and '16. It's probably in the range of 5 to 10 meters.
Brad Peters: Absolutely ideal for our drill. It's absolutely ideal -- the ideal environment if you're looking to conceal a porphyry deposit.
Brad Peters: I don't think it's any secret that everybody knows that if a porphyry deposit was sticking out of the mountains here, then it would have been found years ago. Certainly in first-pass with a helicopter. Our objective here is to find a very large porphyry deposit that's yet concealed.
Peter Bell: Thank you, again. I would point people towards an interview that you did with Trevor Hall recently, where you un-packed some of the systematic aspects of the Pacific Empire plan here. Great to see it all at play with this project and this campaign. Reading about the news release with 5 to 20 meters of glacial gravel, "no outcropping rock exposure". Again, so many things to talk about with all of that, but I would draw your attention to changing surface conditions and ask you to comment on the logging in the area.
Brad Peters: Oh, exactly. Interestingly enough, my business partner and Vice-President Rory Richie and I were first on this property in 2012. To get to the central area where we're going to be drilling, shortly, we had to hike-in through swamp. And low scrub. It was very difficult hiking. There was really no access to this area, other than by a helicopter.
Brad Peters: We received notice that we had the property back a few months ago. One of the first things we did was to get up to the property and have a look. To our surprise, they'd been logging very close over the last two or three years. This was the return of the property to us after five years of partner-funded exploration.
Brad Peters: It was really a surprise to see the logging.
Brad Peters: Over the last winter, we saw that they had logged -- really -- the general area here that we are going to be exploring. For us, that just opens it right up and dramatically reduces the cost. As I mentioned earlier, it really allows us to explore systematically here without having to compromise. That's important for us, certainly.
Peter Bell: With the logging comes roads. Please can I ask a pointed question there about roads. I don't recall seeing a map that indicated where roads were, but on closer inspection I see it! It is included here on the project page and probably in prior news releases, as well.
Brad Peters: You bet. There's a road. There's a map -- the second of three maps that we have currently on the site. We will continue to update that. We're refining our targets here now. On the second map -- the compilation map, if you will -- the legend on the bottom right shows the red dashed line refers to existing logging roads. Now, these are roads that are there right now. See all the red dots. For the most part, in our target area there are new roads.
Brad Peters: You'll also see proposed logging roads. Of course, there's no guarantee when these are going to go in. But these are roads that have been flagged in, if not this winter then at some point in the near future. Those roads are going to go in and they're going to open up additional areas on the property to us.
Brad Peters: Again, these were areas that were really only ever helicopter-accessible. When you've got helicopter-accessible drilling, it's expensive. You really only get a few cracks at it. The idea with our RC drill is to do more and explore systematically. That map shows what we have in terms of the area of anomalous chargeability.
Brad Peters: Those roads will provide us access to the entire area that is anomalous.
Brad Peters: Going forward, there may be additional target areas, but for the time being we certainly have plenty of access roads and we're ready to go.
Peter Bell: Thank you. Yes, I see the ELBOW zone marked there. The SOONER zone, marked as well.
Brad Peters: That's correct.
Peter Bell: There are certainly little red dotted lines indicating roads that exist at this time -- are these drive-up targets?
Brad Peters: They're very close to drive-up targets. The existing logging roads there at this moment get us to within several hundred meters of the specific drill targets that we're going to be drilling very shortly. It's basically flat. To get the additional distance, it's most suited for winter drilling.
Brad Peters: It's actually much easier to do it in the winter than it is in the summer.
Brad Peters: Road construction is not required. These targets are, for the most part, very close to being drive-and-drill. For our purposes -- close enough.
Peter Bell: Thank you. Thank you. I'd point out, as well, the IP compilation that's shown on this map -- it's somewhat spotty. There are areas along the roads that don't have any coverage. Looking in the southwest corner of the project there. I wonder about the potential for surprises!
Peter Bell: I haven't heard you guys talking about wildcatting holes or anything. That doesn't seem to be your approach here. You're more systematic than that, but I wonder about the potential for other surprises here?
Brad Peters: Absolutely, we are systematic in our approach but, at the same , we're cautious of overlooking what may be right under our own feet. We'll be having a look at additional target areas, as well on the property.
Brad Peters: As you mentioned, the chargeability response, although large, is spotty. What we do know about this chargeability response, through drilling that has taken place whether it's in the area of Apalite Creek in the early '90s or Oz Minerals or recently ML Gold. That chargeability signature is pyrite. We know that it's sulphide in bedrock. One of the things we're also cognizant of, certainly, is because of that drilling the IP chargeability signature is mapping sulphides. Pyrite is the most chargeable sulphide, if you will. We're also cautious about drilling the highest chargeability, specifically.
Brad Peters: The highest chargeability anomalies, themselves, are we not enough. We need to make sure that we bring geological structures. Most importantly, what we're seeing in the drilling itself! It guides us to allow us to vector-into the targets.
Brad Peters: Rather than just being focused on drilling the biggest, pinkest blob, for lack of a better term.
Peter Bell: The fact that you have gold and copper in drill core at these some of these collar locations helps. It lets you know!
Brad Peters: It really does, Peter. That's something important to us in this area.
Brad Peters: For example, when Oz Minerals came in, they drilled the ELBOW target. It is the the southeast chargeability anomaly. The holes that they drilled were 800 meter step-outs. Of the three holes shown in black in the map and drilled by Oz, two were sent for analysis to the lab. Those would be the two northern-most holes. Both of those holes had gold in them. That includes the hundred meters, roughly, of a third of a gram gold. The one to the west there had gold kicks in it, as well. To be able to get gold over that type of area is good.
Brad Peters: Then, there is gold further to the north at Apolite Creek. Then, hits again at the SOONER zone.
Brad Peters: To be able to get gold in drilling over this type of area with this type of anomalous chargeability signature is important to us. There is a hole there, the southern-most hole, which was the second hole that Oz drilled. That's in black, just to the south of that ELBOW chargeability anomaly. Although that wasn't sent to the lab for analysis, that was a hole that would be described as poly-metallic veins. That is something that it is equally important to us, because at Mount Milligan mine that's the type of feature you're seeing just outboard from the deposit. When we take that in context, it's encouraging. Here we've got our poly-metallic veins, then it looks like we're moving closer and getting away from the poly-metallic veins into the gold halo. At this point for us, it's a matter of determining where are we within this gold halo. Where would the higher temperature copper center be located?
Peter Bell: Wonderful. Great to have that textbook porphyry model in mind with exploration here. All of the mining and exploration work that's happening in BC around these copper-gold systems -- the scale of some of them is just mind-boggling. It's hard to write them off completely with a few drill holes spaced out 800 meters apart.
Brad Peters: That's a big part of it, Peter. There are targets elsewhere that we've looked at with chargeability signatures that are much smaller -- which is an understatement. I think you really touched on it there, Peter. The scale is important. It demonstrates there is something of some scale and magnitude going on in this area. At this point for us, it's really a question of grade and scale. Where is it on that curve?
Brad Peters: To test a target area like this with three or four drill holes in one area, then three or four another -- I can understand if those those holes were dead. Those holes were not dead, so this property is certainly very exciting for us.
Peter Bell: Well, what's the cost per meter, right? Doing some quick, first-pass work here with the RC drill rig Pacific Empire has -- what a useful tool.
Brad Peters: We think it's a great tool for this property. We've always looked at modifying this RC drill to get it to the point where it can get through the cover efficiently, so that we can get into bedrock and drill that cost-effectively. The goal is to get the data that's required to start really vectoring and targeting, effectively.
Brad Peters: As I mentioned, the induced polarization and that chargeability anomaly is great -- its large, it's got scale, and gets you into the area. But at a certain point, you've really got to work with what you're seeing in drilling.
Brad Peters: Drilling is hard data.
Brad Peters: In addition, the magnetics can help but really it's the drilling that we're using here to guide where we're going to go in the future.
Peter Bell: And the seismic -- the passive seismometer that you're using. A ground-based, point-based gravity measurement that helps give you some indication of depth to bedrock. Again, very useful too. An essential and important part of this RC exploration kit.
Brad Peters: I would agree, Peter.
Brad Peters: The passive seismometer has really turned out to be a bit of a game-changer for us here. One of the issues, of course, we had to address early with the RC drill was adapting, specifically, the tooling on the rig and our techniques to get through the overburden. The seismometer gives us information that helps. We realized it late last year and we've been using it to great effect this year. It tells us exactly where bedrock is and it lets us know whether or not we're looking at 40 metres of overburden or four metres of overburden. How we approach those two different situations is much different.
Brad Peters: In addition to that, it also tells us where not to drill.
Brad Peters: If there is greater than 50, 60, 70, 80, or a hundred meters of overburden in a particular area then we would look to test additional areas in the general area within proximity to that to find out is this a paleo channel or is this consistent with what's going on in the area?
Brad Peters: The seismometers have really been a very valuable tool for us. I would think they are the final piece of the puzzle with the RC drill to be really efficient with drilling. We had the crew up to have a look at the property and we did a fair bit of reconnaissance seismic on the property. It works with great effect. Everything we've looked at to-date suggested the areas we're looking at here are probably about five to ten meters of overburden on average. There may be a few surprises, but we will have that information before the drill goes in the ground.
Peter Bell: This is it exactly where management comes in. How important it is to to have some systematic approach -- not just to your exploration concepts and your geological modeling, but your budget. Your budgeting and your field program? Management -- what you do first? Second? You guys are getting to be more and more practiced at this.
Brad Peters: Certainly. We've made great strides with it. We knew there would be challenges with the RC drill. Like I said, a big component of it for us was identifying the challenges and overcoming them. Based on what we've seen here this year with the drill with the modifications we've made on it for overburden, the drill is performing now beyond our expectations. We couldn't be happier about that. It took a little bit of work -- it wasn't simple.
Brad Peters: And this will be the first winter program -- so there will be all kinds of new challenges, potentially, as well. I look forward to seeing you continue to work hard in a systematic way, as you've been doing. Minerals exploration is long-odds, fundamentally. The more kicks you take at it, the better.
Peter Bell: Consider that with the passive seismometer. At some of these hot holes from 2015, like the first hole of the campaign at the ELBOW zone, doing a step-out hole immediately adjacent to that might sound like an obvious thing to do. Given the structural interpretation that you mentioned in the news release around geology -- great -- but, please, before you drill that seismometer in your toolkit gives you important info. If we collar a hole here, when are we gonna hit bedrock? To have some certainty in planning that gives you sense of time and money. It's amazing.
Brad Peters: Absolutely. One of the interesting things I found when I had a chance to visit the drilling crew in the Babine was when I spoke to the geologists. I said, "how far do you think we are from bedrock based on what you've seen with the seismometer?" His response was, "should be any second now." Literally, within about a minute, the driller looked at him and said "Okay, we're in bedrock now." We found the seismometer very predictable. Our driller knows exactly when he's hit bedrock, but we're finding that the data that we're getting from the seismometer helps now that we are good at interpreting the data. There is a little bit of interpretation, but we're finding it to be very consistent and very accurate. Certainly, accurate enough for our purposes.
Peter Bell: Yes, indeed. Keeping it simple with the first-pass concepts and everything again, please let me say it "Congratulations!" on your focused program and plan for what next.
Peter Bell: We've seen the company trading heavily here recently in the secondary market. Approximately a two million market cap showing based on a forty million shares at five cents, Canadian. Based on information from recent news and financials, I believe that this program is funded. I didn't see it mentioned in the news.
Brad Peters: We did a private placement earlier in the season and allocated approximately $300,000-350,000 for the year. We spent just over a $100,000 one hundred thousand dollars in in the Babine region. We've got about $200,000 two hundred thousand dollars left for this program. That's plenty to fund a 20 hole proposed program here.
Brad Peters: We do have enough in the Treasury, certainly, to continue drilling here for a few months and that's exactly what we plan to do.
Peter Bell: I appreciate also the pictures of the drill core from 2015, Brad. Speaks to the stewardship and the continuity there you guys have with this property. You optioned this property off to two different counterparties, who both had some joy in their drilling. To be able to get it back for -- I hope third time's a charm for you. Very exciting.
Brad Peters: I certainly hope that third time's the charm, Peter. Most importantly, there was high-quality data. Oz was a great partner. We had oriented drill core. We drilled holes that were on the order of 400-500 four or five hundred meters. There's a tremendous amount of information there that we were able to glean. And what was clear to us in drilling here at the ELBOW is that it looks like we really tapped into the plumbing system of something. That's what we're really seeing. The ELBOW is the quartz sericite pyrite alteration with the gold-biotite overprinting. That's important for us. That gives us an indication here that there is a higher temperature component here somewhere. Did we hit it with hole number one at ELBOW? Absolutely not. We know that, but what we're seeing in that hole really suggests to us here that we've tapped into the plumbing system. It's coming from somewhere. This is part of the plumbing of what's going on with this hydrothermal system in the area. Now, we're going to chase that plumbing system and then find out where it's coming from.
Peter Bell: Amazing. Thank you for mentioning the deep hole or deep holes and the geological interpretation that you have corresponding to those holes. The oriented core is such an important detail for the technical audience that understands the porphyry exploration model and process. You could put some shallow holes in something and pull some copper, but some people could discount it but you can show a deep hole. You could say, "Yes, thank you. Do you want us to do some mineralogy? We have the core, still." All really fortuitous for you. Wonderful.
Brad Peters: You're right about those long holes. With Oz Minerals as a partner doing the oriented core, I think it was clear that there are a lot of veins in that core. Vein density is absolutely critical for a porphyry deposit. When you have oriented core and that amount of veining in the core, we're able to gather a tremendous amount of information from that. That's critical to us. The orientation of the veins -- where are they coming from and where are they going? Most importantly, where do we go to find to find out where these veins came from? Having the oriented core really gives us a clear sense of things.
Peter Bell: An impressive little data set to work with, going forward! All your RC will be a new type of information to add to all that. Again for these audiences that are out there looking at project-scale databases, looking for discoveries, you can potentially put together a convincing case quicker than you otherwise might.
Brad Peters: That's a big part of how we how operate. The ability to get to the bottom of things relatively quickly is important.
Brad Peters: For example, when we were in the Babine on the SAT Project we had a hole that drilled some interesting copper. Step-out and you can't replicate it 200 meters away. You get to the bottom of that pretty darn quick. We use an XRF on site, which allows us to get real-time data, for the most part. It allows us to operate in real-time and make decisions in real-time. Adapt, and use the information we're getting to plan the further drill holes.
Peter Bell: Thank you. I'll give another shout out to your recent interview with Trevor Hall there. We went through a bunch more of the history of the company and plans for what's next. A great discussion on copper markets in that interview. I really enjoyed hearing you talk about that, Brad.
Peter Bell: I'll give regards to Rory Ritchie, Vice-President of Exploration for Pacific Empire and the Q.P. for the news release today.
Peter Bell: Allow me to briefly read about us. Pacific Empire Minerals, PEMC, is an exploration company based in Vancouver, British Columbia that employs a hybrid prospect generator business model. It trades on the TSX Venture under the symbol PEMC, OTCQB as PEMSF.
Peter Bell: By integrating the project generator business model with low-cost reverse circulation drilling, the company intends to leverage its portfolio by identifying and focusing on the highest-quality projects for partnerships and advancement.
Peter Bell: Mr. Brad Peters, the President and Chief Executive officer at phone number 1-604-355-6246. Brad@PEMCorp.ca Please reach out and say hello.
Peter Bell: Thank you very much, Brad.
Brad Peters: Thank you for your time, Peter.
Peter Bell: Goodbye.
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