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Millrock Resources (TSX-V: MRO) CEO Greg Beischer on Upcoming Drilling Season at Projects in Mexico and Alaska
Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is President and CEO of Millrock Resources (TSX-V: MRO)(OTC: MLRKF), Mr. Greg Beischer. Greg, how are you this morning?
Greg Beischer: Very well, Gerardo. Good to hear your voice again. It's been a little while since we've had a chat. I'm glad to be on the phone again with you.
Gerardo Del Real: It's been a bit. You know the La Navidad Gold Project in Sonora is a project that I've been excited to see you drill. The first round of drilling gave us some decent intercepts, but it didn't quite give us the fire that we were looking for. There was a lot of smoke. I know that Millrock and Centerra have been hard at work the last several months, making sure that you're identifying the best targets and, frankly, vetting the project to make sure that it deserved a second round of drilling. Yesterday you announced, or this morning I should say, you announced that a second round of drilling at the La Navidad Gold Project has commenced. I believe that drill started turning yesterday. Give us the details, Greg, of what you've been doing to develop these targets and what the program will look like.
Greg Beischer: Yeah, sure thing. It's great to be drilling again for sure. Every time we drill a hole it’s the opportunity to make that big discovery that will reward our shareholders. But we have been busy at work ever since the start of February on La Navidad. Big crew of people out collecting soil and rock samples, cutting trenches with excavator and bulldozer, sampling the rocks to really analyze whether the soil anomalies that we had at the Cobre and Crossover prospects would warrant drilling. This is an area off to the northwest from the Anchor prospect that we drilled last November/December.
We were really pleased with the geologic picture that developed, the scene, the low-angle fault structures that we know are needed to host large-scale orogenic gold deposits and there is lots of little quartz veins exposed at surface that are mineralized with gold. Definitely drill targets worthy of drilling emerged. Centerra was happy to fund the next round. So we're underway. The drill arrived on site and started churning last night.
Gerardo Del Real: Now, I understand that the core drilling program is going to consist of, initially at least, 1,650 meters and seven holes from 150 to 250 meters in depth. Is that accurate Greg?
Greg Beischer: That's right, yep. And actually we're going to start back in the Anchor prospect on hole 10 from the prior drilling program, re-entering that hole to deepen it. There was mineralization through the hole and also right at the bottom of the hole. We stopped the hole, even though we could see alteration of the rock. It was getting very close to the end of the program and the budget last December and so we stopped the hole, but sure enough there's mineralization at the bottom of the existing hole. So, we're going to deepen that to start off with and see if there's more to that discovery than we thought before. So that's how we'll start the program, but then it's on to the Cobre and Crossover prospects where we'll be undercutting some of the pretty good trench results that we got by sampling rocks in those trenches. The grade is there for the type of the deposit we're looking for, a heap leachable type gold deposit. The question will be, “is there adequate thickness and volume of that mineralized rock?” And that's what the drilling program's designed to do.
Gerardo Del Real: You mentioned the Cobre and the Crossover prospects and I understand that you're also doing three lines of infill induced polarization geophysical surveys that total 5.4km. Can you speak to that a bit?
Greg Beischer: Sure. IP, or induced polarization, is a great tool, one of the many tools that mineral exploration geologists use to put together an image of a subsurface. IP is particularly helpful with that, helps us understand what types of rocks are below surface and what configuration. It can help directly identify disseminated sulfide mineralization, which can often be associated with the gold. It's a part of the program that we've been running over the past two and a half months, putting all of the pieces of the puzzle together to develop these drill targets.
Gerardo Del Real: You're a prospect generator. You spent the bulk of the bear market getting some of the better properties out there, spreading the risk jurisdiction-wise. You have properties in Alaska of course. What else is going on with the portfolio, Greg?
Greg Beischer: Right. Centerra's been a great partner aggressively funding work on La Navidad, but also on the El Picacho project which is not too far away. Again, over the past couple of months some strong targets have emerged. We're going to continue to do some field work through the hot summer months, but I suspect we'll be drilling some darn good targets at the El Picacho project in Sonora by the fall. So, that's good.
Alaska field season is just about upon us. It's been a late break up, a late melt this year. It'll be June by the time we get drilling again at the Alaska Range project. Our partner, PolarX, has come through with good financing and that'll allow us to get going to try and expand the high-grade copper-gold resource at the Alaska Range project that we firmed up last year on behalf of PolarX.
At this point it looks like Millrock will have a drill turning first at La Navidad, then at Alaska Range, and then back down at El Picacho. Other things are picking up. We're getting a lot more inquiries from other companies about available projects and so I'd expect new partnerships here soon.
Gerardo Del Real: I'm glad you mentioned that because that leads me into my next question. You're very active behind the scenes at conferences and in reaching out to mid-tiers and majors. Are you seeing more interest in projects in general? Not just your projects, but when you speak to funds and you speak to these companies, are you seeing that it's more active than it has been in past years?
Greg Beischer: Definitely from the mid-tier and major companies, interest is there. It's genuine and they've got dollars to back it up. They're on the hunt for projects. We're touring one company after another through our portfolio. Clearly the interest level has increased. Not seeing so much from the juniors. I think it's still very difficult for junior companies to raise funds for early stage grassroots projects. The investor interest just isn't there yet. I think it's going to take a pretty significant increase in the price of gold before we see that.
Gerardo Del Real: I agree. Well in the meantime, it sounds like rigs turning between now and all the way through fall is what you said, right Greg?
Greg Beischer: That's right, exactly.
Gerardo Del Real: Excellent. Well that's a lot of news flow. I hope to have you back on. I'm excited to see the results from the drilling program at La Navidad and I'm also curious to see what the other projects turn up. Anything that you'd like to add, Greg?
Greg Beischer: Nope. There should be pretty good news flow from here, Gerardo, so I expect we're going to be talking to each other quite often.
Gerardo Del Real: Well, I hope the news flow is good news. Thanks a lot for your time today.
Greg Beischer: All the best. Thanks, Gerardo. Bye now.