Julián Lopez of Target Directional Announces Directional Drilling Milestone At CGS2024 in Medellín, Colombia

Finance Colombia: I’m here with Julián Lopez of Target Directional. We’re here at CGS 2024 Colombia Gold Summit. You guys have some exciting news to announce, is that correct?

Julián Lopez: Yes, that’s correct, for sure. We just finished the deeper hole in HQ with directional drilling. It’s a sub-horizontal hole, for a tunnel, so that is a very successful hole in Colombia. Especially because it’s an HQ, so it’s a big diameter for exploration.

Finance Colombia: What is the diameter of the hole?

Julián Lopez: The diameter is 3.78 inches. So, usually, you drill in 2.38 inches. So, for this deep hole, it’s 1,000 meters.

Finance Colombia: Wow, a kilometer. Wow.

Julián Lopez: Yeah, one kilometer.

Finance Colombia: And where have you guys drilled this hole? Where is this?

Julián Lopez: Okay, this is in Antioquia. No, it’s difficult to say which project is right now.

Finance Colombia: Okay, I understand.

Julián Lopez: But the hole, it’s still drilling, right now. We will be the deepest hole in Colombia, it’s 2,000 meters in NQ.

Finance Colombia: So, tell me about Target Directional. You guys are specialists when it comes to drilling. When does a company, when does a mining operation, call on specialists like you all?

Julián Lopez: Okay, so, we start doing, like…Helping the drilling companies. Like, we start to help in drilling companies, and we are specialists in directional drilling, from the oil and gas industry. So, what we did: we take that technology, we bring for a diamond drilling industry, so we mix the technologies, and we start to drill in, and getting targets in Peru. We started in Peru. But the company [was] just born in Colombia.

Finance Colombia: Directional drilling has revolutionized the business because you can drill around obstacles. I see in big construction projects they use it, but then, obviously, with oil and gas to get to different deposits. And in mining as well, because a lot of times the most valuable deposits are not the easiest ones to get to. How has directional drilling revolutionized the industry?

Julián Lopez: Okay. The main idea for directional drilling is that you can save meters. Why? Because from one hole, you can get multiple holes. So, you only need to drill the mother hole one time. And, let’s say, if you will drill 5,000 meters, 1,000 meters each hole. Okay? With directional drilling, you drill one mother hole to 500 meters, and from 500, you can open zone holes. So, you will save time, you will save, let’s say, water, you will save environmentally, roads… A lot of things.

Finance Colombia: I’ve seen- I visit mines. I love when I get a chance to visit mines, especially early-stage mines, when they’re under exploration. And sometimes they’re in very difficult areas to reach. They’re on the side of a mountain, it’s this deep mountain, or something like that, and you have to get these big drill rigs up on some mountain. And then, like you mentioned, saving time. Time is money. One of the biggest risks for early-stage exploratory mines is running out of money or running out of investments before they complete their drilling, right?  So, how does directional drilling help those companies to be better stewards of their investments and to be more successful?

Julián Lopez: Okay. Let’s say this is your target, okay? So, if this is the azimuth of the target. You want to go from the front, okay? So, you need to build different platforms. With directional drilling, we use the same platform, okay? So you can turn the holes wherever you want, and impact in the inclination, or azimuth, so you have absolute control of the direction.

Finance Colombia: It makes it easier to explore and is less expensive, right?

Julián Lopez: The cost of the directional drilling, you save with the meters that you leave to drill. So, at the end, it’s one extra cost, but you save meters, you save time, you save water, you save people. So, in the end, you save money, and you get better information about the target because we have precision. So, if you want to get one coordinate, we will get there.

Finance Colombia: Okay. Even by degrees or things like that. Wow.

Julián Lopez: It doesn’t matter, yeah.

Finance Colombia: So, if somebody wants to…Let’s say an operator or an early-stage mining company wants to contact Target Directional. How can people find the company? Do you have a website, or how can people reach you and communicate with you?

Julián Lopez: Yes, for sure: www.targetdirectional.com. We are on LinkedIn: Target Directional. We are on Facebook, Instagram, and, yeah. It’s easy to find us on social media, for sure.

Finance Colombia: Great, great. Well, congratulations on this great news. I understand that with mining, there’s a lot of confidentiality, but you know, we know that you guys have done this here. We’re in Medellín, which is the capital of Antioquia, one of the most active mining regions, and so really, that’s great news, and “un hito.”

Julián Lopez: Yes. Colombia is not drilling too much at this moment. But here we have four projects with directional drilling. Not only Target, other players, okay? But what does that mean? Colombia is getting into a new market because it is the leader right now of the directional drilling market. Even right now, 80% of the technicians for directional drilling are from Colombia. In the South American market.

Finance Colombia: That’s a great achievement for Colombia, even though we’re in a time of uncertainty when it comes to mining. Now, let’s talk about…We’re here at CGS 2024, we’re here at Colombia Gold Summit. Tell me about how is this event for you all. How is the Colombia Gold Summit for you? How do you like this event?

Julián Lopez: Okay, really, really good. We always find friends and clients. Even here are some clients, “Hey, the hole is going well, thank you so much,” you know. So it’s a very good space for the people that you need to meet. Each person here is somebody that you need to talk to, you need to meet him, and that’s what we like a lot about this event.

Finance Colombia: It’s the most important gold mining event in Colombia, if not the entire Andes. So it’s always great so see you here, to meet old friends and new. Again, congratulations on this great achievement that Target Directional has made.

Julián Lopez: Thank you so much, and thank you so much for the interview and this space.