Hannan Metals (TSX-V: HAN) CEO Michael Hudson on the Discovery of Mineralized Zinc Outcrop Hundreds of Meters from the Kilbricken Deposit

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the CEO of Hannan Metals (TSX-V: HAN)(OTC: HANNF), Mr. Michael Hudson. Mike, how are you this afternoon?

Michael Hudson: As always, top of the world, Gerardo.

Gerardo Del Real: I should clarify, that's Chairman and CEO.

Michael Hudson: Still top of the world.

Gerardo Del Real: Listen, the last time that we spoke, Mike, we talked about this being a year of discovery for Hannan. We talked about how important the recent seismic survey was, and how important it was going to be to find the structures from the seismic, because you felt that would make for more efficient targeting, and being a year of exploration for Hannan, that would one, save shareholders capital in making sure that you're allocating money towards the best targets.

That's already paying off in spades. You had news yesterday where you've now discovered zinc mineralized outcrops 600 meters from Kilbricken. For the average retail speculator, and maybe some of the institutional folks, it may not be as big a deal to them, but this is a big deal. How often does it happen in Ireland that you find outcrop anywhere?

Michael Hudson: It doesn't happen very often. A lot of geologists in Ireland go through their careers without finding anything at surface anymore. I mean, literally most of the surface discoveries were made in the Victorian times, as around the Kilbricken deposit itself. It was an old Victorian age mine that the Victorians got into and put a small scale mine on. And then the other discoveries that were near surface were essentially made, the easy discoveries, in the late '50s, early '60s. It really just doesn't happen anymore, Gerardo. It's extremely rare.

Gerardo Del Real: How did you come across the outcrop? What led to it? Did the seismic survey, the recent seismic, and the structural reinterpretation help that?

Michael Hudson: Really good prospecting is the simple answer. We certainly became aware of further structure updip, so at shallower levels from the Kilbricken resource area. And we're aware that there was gaps in the soil sampling, which is another key part of our exploration toolbox. So, define the structure, go and do some soils over it, and ideally these structures have leakage from the mineralization at depth to the surface.

And we started to receive some very high-grade soils, up to thousands of PPM lead and zinc. And these are extremely high values, right? You certainly wouldn't want to crop and grow vegetables in that sort of level of lead and zinc. It's abnormally high. And then by good fortune, this is in a forestry area, and the forest, the trees were just harvested very recently over the last month or so. They got in there with some heavy machinery and dug around, and this brought some rock to the surface that essentially has never ever been seen before. With the structure, the soils, the good fortune of having some trees cut down and some heavy machinery in the area, our geologists were prospecting around and found this lead and zinc at surface.

Gerardo Del Real: Now, the rocks that you're seeing in the outcrop are similar to what led to the Kilbricken discovery. Is that accurate?

Michael Hudson: Absolutely. The mineralization essentially forms a pancake at a certain geological horizon, at depth. Then, from that pancake mineralization, if you like, there's leakage through faults, up to the surface. That's what the Victorian age miners were mining, that remobilized or mineralization that had leaked to surface.

That's exactly what we see here in terms of leakage to surface with these surface outcrops. Now, what happened in 2008 was that a drill rig was directed right down to the old Victorian age workings and bonanza, there was a fantastic discovery – 10 meters at something like 18 or 19% lead and zinc – was drilled under that old working. 400 meters below that working actually, but we're only talking maybe 200 to 250 meters where we're looking in this Finanagh area, the new discovery.

Gerardo Del Real: Are we anticipating a drill rig sometime soon here, hopefully in the next couple of months, to test that target? I've got to think it's a priority now, Mike.

Michael Hudson: I'm jumping up and down and wanting to get a drill rig there as soon as we can. That's subject to financing, Gerardo. We've got 12 kilometers of strike extensions of Kilbricken, at shallower and deeper, and similar depths, right around the area now that the seismic has de-risked. We've already taken a lot of the soil samples, and this discovery at Finanagh is priority number one, of course, because of all the different ingredients that have come together, not less that surface discovery that's very rare. Yeah, I'm extremely excited to get the drill rig to site as soon as we can.

Gerardo Del Real: Well, as a shareholder, I'm excited as well. Earlier in the year, you said, you coined the phrase, "Exploration is back." I said this was going to be a year of discoveries for Hannan. This is a great start, Mike. Congratulations.

Michael Hudson: Thank you. The year of discovery has started, Gerardo.

Gerardo Del Real: Look forward to having you back on soon, Mike.

Michael Hudson: Regards, thank you.