Berenguela’s Silver, Copper & Manganese Story Takes Shape

0:17Mining Stock Daily: Welcome back to the Precious Metal Summit here in Beaver Creek. We are going to get an update, a long overdue update here from Aftermath Silver. They trade on the Venture Exchange with AAG and on the OTCQX with AAGFF. And I promise you, we will try to keep the English footie banter with my friend, Ralph Rushton, here to a minimum. Ralph, good to see you. Welcome back to Colorado. Good to see you. I'm sorry you're still a Chelsea fan. Well, you know, it's been a little painful a couple of years, but I think maybe there's some light at this tunnel, though. Let's talk about the Baranguela project in Peru.

0:53Mining Stock Daily: It's been a long time since we've talked about this, a long update. Maybe for somebody coming into the aftermath story for the first time, what is Barranguela today, and what do you think the market most commonly misunderstands about this project? Barranguela is a silver copper manganese deposit in southern Peru. It's been known since the turn of the last century. It was actually mined by a bunch of guys from Liverpool in the early 1900s. They were after high-grade silver. However, we are looking at the project as a potential critical metals producer, so the full suite silver, copper, manganese, and some zinc as well.

1:31What people, I think, fail to understand is whilst the chemistry is relatively complex because of the manganese, with the change in utility of manganese over the last 10 to 20 years, and it's now a critical battery component, the knowledge of the chemistry of manganese has evolved to the point where these projects are now mineable and processable, so you can actually produce a manganese, a commercial manganese product from, or like we see at Berenguella.

2:00Mining Stock Daily: Is that going to drive the project economics, the manganese? Yes, a large potential proportion of the revenue will be from manganese, but the focus on the early years of the project, we're doing the pre-feasibility engineering at the moment, that the focus in the first five to six years will be maximizing silver production. Oh, okay. And why maximizing that? Because manganese is a commodity where you need off-take agreements. And to get an off-take agreement, you need a commercial quantity of the material for the battery manufacturers to test. So it's not going to be necessarily possible to just jump straight into manganese production.

2:41We need to make some, give it to the battery manufacturers and let them do what they do with it. and give it the credentials that we need to be able to sell it.

2:51Mining Stock Daily: What does an end product look like at Beringuella? How do you mean? What will you be producing? A concentrate? Will it be different concentrates with the manganese? So the flow sheet we're looking at at the moment is essentially at the project site, there'll just be a mine. We won't be doing any processing at Beringuella itself. We have road rail and power nearby, so the material will be shipped to the coast. The reagents we need are at the coast called Matarani in southern Peru. The objective is to produce silver dory, so silver metal. You will then produce, you can electrowind copper. Basically, you get the rock into solution using acid.

3:30You produce the silver using a Merrill-Crowe circuit on what's left in the bottom of the tank. And then you're left with the liquid, and that liquid is enriched in manganese, copper, zinc, iron. We put it through a series of steps to produce copper metal and then an iron zinc concentrate, sulfide concentrate. And then you produce manganese sulfate via crystallization of the liquid that's left in the tank. So it's a complex flow sheet, but it works.

3:58Mining Stock Daily: Is there a similar operation you're kind of replicating here? Anybody else in the world doing something very similar? In Southern Africa, Guiani Metals built a pilot plant to produce manganese sulfate. They were working with the South African government. The engineer that's doing the design work for us, overseeing the hydromet process work for us, was heavily involved in the design of that plant. So he's been through it before. South 32 are looking at a similar project in the U.S. There's a small producer in Peru that's using the same flow sheet. So it's technology that's been proven. Okay. So obviously on your way with that PFS, what's the important questions here that you still need to be answered before that PFS can really provide that deep dive?

4:47Logistics. Okay. You know, you need land. So that's always a key component of any mine that's mining substantial quantities. You need land for tailings, you need land for, you know, waste dumps, that kind of stuff. So that's something we're actively working on at the moment. securing land ownership. We're comfortable that we've de-risked this geologically, and we are most of the way towards de-risking the engineering side of it. And then the markets. What are the prices going to be? I mean, obviously, the key to a lot of mining projects is simply the commodity price.

5:22Mining Stock Daily: You've been doing a lot of test work on the copper side of Bang & Wail as well. We have. We have the opportunity to potentially make two or three different products. So we could electrowind cathode copper. We can make copper sulfate. And there's what they call copper cement, which is you plating onto iron. But is it the, I think what I was reading, it's an eastern, is it an extension of Berenguela that's copper rich? Yeah. So as we go towards the eastern side of the project, we are seeing higher copper to zinc ratios. So there's an increase in the amount of copper, which suggests that we're getting closer to the heat source of the fluid that drove the mineralization.

6:03Potentially, we don't know, potentially a porphyry system or something like that. So we have been drilling out to the east. In the southwest of the project, we've got another target we've just got the drill permits for. That is a potential SCARN target. So we've got a magnetite mine, an iron mine just off our concessions, associated with seeing a lot of copper oxide at surface. So the working model we have for that at the moment is a SCARN target. We hope to be drilling that very, very shortly. Okay.

6:33Mining Stock Daily: The political climate in Peru has obviously been real favorable for the miners once again. Do you see this as a window of opportunity? Does it move fast? I mean, is it kind of, you know, go as fast as you can while this environment is still supportive? Well, I mean, you are limited by the speed of the permitting process, and it is quite slow in Peru. I mean, we waited probably the best part of a year for the drill permit for the copper target there. It is frustrating. However, I mean, even during the most upheaval over the last few years, the administration worked. We were still able to get things permitted.

7:09We still had any inspections that needed to be done were carried out. So it works. It's not always as fast as you like, but it works.

7:19Mining Stock Daily: Is that kind of the biggest holdup with a lot of the stuff? Yeah, permanently. And any sort of implications on that piece of PFS as far as getting that permitting? I guess maybe the timing of the PFS and knowing it's taken a while gives a dream. Why put out the PFS now when it's taken so long to get some of those permits that you could add on to it? A number of different reasons, but one would be cost. So if you're looking at a pre-feasibility study, you're looking at maybe$5,$6,$7 million for that, whereas a definitive feasibility study where you're actually working towards defining a reserve on the project, that's going to cost quite a bit more.

7:59Mining Stock Daily: Okay. I remember the thing was about two or three years ago, you and I were chatting about the importance of the manganese. It was almost like it was a new discovery, like an unknown. And you guys were just wading into it and trying to learn. But it feels like you've got a really good grasp of everything now. Yeah, one thing that's changed has been the attitude of one of the largest markets in the world, which is the U.S. The government, whether you like them or not, has put a huge focus on securing critical metals. And they're awarding a lot of grants at the moment to companies that are able to demonstrate there's a clear road to production of whatever critical commodity it is they're looking for.

8:43So there is a lot of support at the moment from the U.S. government. They're very close to the Peruvian government. I think both the U.S. and Peru would prefer to see non-Chinese groups involved in developing resource projects in the Americas.

8:56Mining Stock Daily: So are you having conversations with DOE or DOD or whatever here in the United States? We have. We've spoken to a number of U.S. government representatives. Just to understand what it is they're looking for. they put money into nickel projects in Botswana and various other, trying to secure the metals they need, particularly the military. So the Department of Defense is very heavily involved in securing rare earths and other critical metals. Ralph, I hope it's not another year until we get a chat again. But if that is the case, and we look over the next 12 months, obviously that PFS is going to be a huge milestone.

9:38Mining Stock Daily: So we'll be watching close attention, obviously. Hopefully we can talk about that once it's published. What other things do you need to accomplish here over the next 12 months, other than the PFS? Like, what is your market looking for? Well, we're beginning to focus on the Chayacoya project in Peru. Sorry, in Chile as well, northern Chile. That's something we put on the back burner while we focused on Verangelo. We've just drilled five holes into that. We're waiting for the assay results on those five holes. and we plan to do more drilling there in the next sort of 6 to 12 months. We have the drill permits.

10:11What we don't have at the moment is a drill machine. We should have one on the site for our second phase of drilling probably in a month or two. And that's a project that is a silver-gold project. It's less complex in Beringuella, and we would like to expand that resource. Where's that located?

10:31Mining Stock Daily: Northern Chile. Northern Chile. It's just off the hall road to the QB2 expansion project. We use that as our access road. Oh, yeah. So it's only half an hour off the Pan American Highway. It's at low altitude, 1 ,500 meters. There's desalination water nearby. So it's well situated. So we're going to put a little bit more attention and love and attention to that project over the next 6 to 12 months as well, see if we can expand the resource. Okay, very good. All right. Ralph, thanks so much. Good to see you. Thanks very much. Yeah. An exciting footy season in front of us as well, by the way. Have you caught any matches yet?

11:07I haven't, no. I've been watching the Whitecaps. I've gone to a few Whitecaps games in Vancouver. They're flying high. They're number two in the league. They've had a pretty good couple seasons. Some decent seasons there.

11:18Mining Stock Daily: Unlike our Rapids. The Rapids here in Colorado have not had some very good seasons. I went to see them, actually, last time I was down here. Did you? Yeah. You went to Dick's Sporting Goods Park? I did, yes. Very good. There was a massive thunderstorm as well. Every night. Every night. Never fast. Never fails. All right, everybody. That is your update here from Aftermath Silver, trading on the venture with AAG and on the OTCQX with AAGFF. Ralph, good to see you. Have a good rest of your week. Thanks, Trevor. The information presented should not be considered investment advice. Mining stock, Dalian's affiliates are not responsible for any loss arising from any investment decision in connection with the material presented herein.

11:56Mining Stock Daily: Please do your own research or speak with a licensed financial representative before making any investment decisions.