Categories: Precious Metals / Mining Stocks
Topics: Gold Stocks / Copper Stocks

Azucar Minerals (TSX-V: AMZ)(OTC: AXDDF) CEO Morgan Poliquin on Exploring for Copper and Gold in North America

 

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the President and CEO of Azucar Minerals (TSX-V: AMZ)(OTC: AXDDF), Dr. Morgan Poliquin.

Morgan, it's great to have you on. It is a way overdue catch-up on Azucar Minerals. Look, you and I have known each other for, I want to say, some 15 or 16 years now. El Cobre was one of the first discoveries I got to go visit in person. That was down in Mexico. It's a great copper gold discovery that you made. Unfortunately, some of the issues, and then the things that have happened in Mexico since then, put that project on the back burner. But you are now active in Nevada, back at it, exploring for copper and gold again here in the US.

And so I thought I'd have you on just to get an update on where Azucar is, what Azucar is doing, and what comes next because we have $4,000 gold, $50 silver, and $5 copper, and I think those prices are headed much, much higher.

Morgan Poliquin: Well, thank you, Gerardo, for having me on and giving me this opportunity to tell everyone what we're doing. Yes, it's been a bit of a time here as we adjusted to the reality of not being able to work on that project, but we've rotated into Nevada and we feel that we're exploring essentially for the same things we found in Mexico. In fact, we feel that we're exploring in a belt of rocks that our sister company, Almadex, identified. And these three properties we have an option to acquire a 60% interest in are really exciting.

They've been moved along to, two of them, to drill-ready status with drill permits in hand. One of them was mined historically and currently, actually, for turquoise, a copper gemstone. And it's got a porphyry exposed at surface with all the attributes. We are going to start work here shortly to refine drill targets.

One of the other ones, one called Confusion Hills, has a breccia zone that we think is associated with a high-sulfidation system, which occurs right above porphyries or adjacent to them. And we've got significant gold values at surface, up to seven grams. And again, a drill permit in hand and that's ready to drill. And then there's a third one that is the same geology and just a little earlier stage that we hope to be able to bring along to the drill stage.

So it's really exciting to be active and going again and exploring for exactly the same commodities and in a much better environment, as you pointed out.

Gerardo Del Real: Is the focus moving forward, just to be clear, with Azucar going to continue to be US-centric or North American-centric, I should say?

Morgan Poliquin: We've always been North American-centric. As my dad puts it, the same geology in the Yukon or Alaska is really through Mexico and many of the same geologic events happened, and it allows you to take geologic theses and understandings to different parts of North America.

But not only that, I think the US, right now, it's challenging to... I believe there's a moratorium on staking new claims in Mexico, and there's some new rules, for example, in British Columbia that add extra layers to staking claims there. And my view is that the world is shifting geopolitically and we're North Americans. We love Mexico, we love the United States, we're based in Canada, and we feel that this is the place to explore and develop new resources for us. And I would argue that Nevada is the best jurisdiction potentially in the world for mineral exploration in terms of accessibility, in terms of obviously geologic endowment, number one, but socially, culturally, people like and understand mining.

If I'm not mistaken, maybe China has surpassed it, I believe it has actually, but Nevada is the largest producing area for gold as a political area, maybe just after China, in the world. So it's just the best place to be in our view.

Gerardo Del Real: Listen, exciting times in the metals space. I am excited to see Azucar get back to what it does best, which is exploring, and looking forward to seeing what the next couple of years deliver, Morgan.

Morgan Poliquin: Thank you very much for this, Gerardo.

Gerardo Del Real: Thanks for coming on. Appreciate it. Chat again soon.

Morgan Poliquin: Talk soon. Bye.

Gerardo Del Real: Cheers.