“On-Site” Series #4, Arizona Gold & Silver: Finding the Source

Mar 17, 2025

One month ago, I traveled to Arizona to take in AZS.V’s Philadelphia Project in the middle of a critical drill campaign. Big, with clear potential, and cheap. Drill core preview inside.

Time Stamps

Click on the timestamps below for that section of the video:

01:10 Intro

05:30 Current Drilling

08:00 Drill Core Preview

12:00 Red Hills

14:20 Arabian Fault

18:00 The Drill

19:40 Reflections

1. Introduction

This one will be quick. I’ll let the video do the talking.

Last month, I traveled into the Mojave Desert of northern Arizona to take in Arizona Gold & Silver’s (AZS.V) Philadelphia Project. And the timing was excellent, as AZS is at a critical juncture in its growth as a company currently.

That is because the ongoing drill campaign is looking to accomplish two key goals:

Firstly, it is expanding and infilling the known areas of mineralisation along strike of AZS’s Arabian Fault. The Arabian Fault express at surface for over a kilometer and contains lengthy swaths of consistent lower-grade mineralisation. Cheap to drill, and will almost certainly be cheap to mine.
Secondly, and most critically, after years of preparation, AZS is finally ready to drill its Red Hill target, the theoretical boiling zone source for the Arabian Fault. Confirming their working model with thick and healthy intercepts on this target will significantly improve the blue sky numbers on Philadelphia as it is currently understood.
And with 100+ years of mining in the region, it is well known what success looks like. And, well, AZS certainly seems to have found some success. Here’s a screen grab from the video of hole 136, completed just before my arrival, showing a large, nearly 20 meter run, those telltale clasts of yellow and green quartz that are clear visual indictors of success (noting clearly that nothing is certain till the assay labs do their jobs). VPEX Greg Hahn discusses (very strictly qualified) the potential of this run in the video.

2. Main Takeaways From My Site Visit

1. How Lean These Guys Are

No camp. No huge crew required to keep the drill moving. Just 2 guys and a rig who live a half hour away. One geologist operating on site. Core driven by the team itself to a lab a few hours away. No huge, eyebrow-raising IR contracts. The money goes into the ground here.

2. The Team

Mike Stark as CEO is a good point man. He works his ass off on the market and boardroom side of things, which leaves VPEX Greg Hahn to focus on the rocks. Which I think is an effective division of labour, as Greg is clearly technically proficient and knowledgeable of this property and region. It takes a range of different skill sets to make a junior explorer succeed and AZS has what it takes to master this project.

3. The Potential For Scale

Fundamentally, thanks to its many positive characteristics (read part 3 below) Philadelphia doesn’t have to be 5 or 10 million ounces to be a successful mine or investment. This is the land of bulk tonnage heap leach projects with hungry mills nearby. My own napkin math has them at about a million high-confidence ounces, and if they find what they are hoping to find this campaign, I think 2.5-3 million ounces is a “reasonable blue sky” projected potential over next year or two of drilling.
However, there’s more room for growth here than I gave it credit for.
1. The Red Hill. Obviously. This is the big one this year. If it is successful (and look at what they’ve drilled in hole 136 in the video) that makes current blue sky much more confident.
2. The Arabian Fault heads under alluvial cover as it travels west toward Bullhead City, but still outcrops periodically along the way, suggesting 1 or 2 or even more kilometers of potential exploration targets not that far below surface that have never been drilled before. I did not realise this prior. It is a very reasonable and accessible future target that could add very meaningful tonnes
3. Other targets. We toured into lands surrounding “Philadelphia Main” (current project) and the potential was clear. Outcroppings, old prospect pits, and other visual pieces of evidence were everywhere. They are definitely longer term and need work to be done, but if AZS survives long enough without being taken out to get to them, I get the sense there’s lots left to discover out here.

Nearby Thumb Butte backdropped by the rising sun.

3. Quick Hits On AZS

AZS and Philadelphia have all the characteristics of a successful investment and a successful mine. Here’s a rundown:

Cheap – both to explore and (looking at producing neighbours) to produce.
Mineralisation at surface.
Excellent mining jurisdiction
Excellent infrastructure – powerlines and highways are just a few hundred meters from where they’re exploring and surrounded by urban centers
Long runs of mineralisation amenable to bulk tonnage mining, but with a high-grade core.
Based on neighbouring producers, and preliminary met work, very easy and successful extraction methods (very amenable to heap leaching).
Blue sky potential – both near term in the form of further exploring its current targets, and long term farther east in its never-drilled property.
Extremely tight float – management protects their shareholder registry.
Huge insider team buys and buy-in – insiders have literally never sold a share of AZS. A director recently exercised some $600,000 of warrants. CEO Mike Stark and other insiders are regularly on the bid. This team believes and demonstrates it.
Very prudent money management. This project is cheap. (For example, no camp required) and management is cheap too. I mean that very much as a compliment. No wasteful spending, no extravagant world tours. Just a deep and singular focus on drilling and exploration.

And that’s it. Check out the video. Check out AZS.V. Further horizontal results from the Arabian Fault are imminent, and, more excitingly, core from the Red Hill hole 136 are also due any week now. And if that comes good, there will be a whole lot more to come.

This could be a very good year indeed for AZS and its investors. Now it’s up to the drill.

Thanks for reading.

-Matthew from JRI

https://arizonagoldsilver.com/