Categories: Precious Metals
Topics: General Precious Metals

Cross River Ventures (CSE: CRVC)(OTC: CSRVF) CEO Alex Klenman on Discovery Drilling Priority Targets at District Scale McVicar Gold Project

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the CEO of Cross River Ventures, Mr. Alex Klenman. Alex, how are you today? Happy 2022.

Alex Klenman: Yeah. Same to you and thanks for having me, Gerardo. Always a pleasure to speak with you.

Gerardo Del Real: Let's get right into it. Rubber's about to hit the road. You had a financing here recently. I had several, several subscribers that participated in that financing. Here we are 50% higher a month later. I've had some nice notes, but I got to tell you, those notes will be nothing in comparison to the notes you will receive if you actually hit at McVicar. It looks like you're excited for the drill program. You just increased the land package and you have an update on the winter drill program so I wanted to have you on. How are things coming along, Alex?

Alex Klenman: Oh, great. What we did today, we put out news. These were small, open ground packages surrounded by our larger claim block that were sitting there. And we just tidied up the concession ground with these, and there's gold showings on each of them, up to 14 grams on the one – Lang Lake Belore. So, we're happy that we've consolidated even more ground, and it sets up well for what's ahead.

Gerardo Del Real: Let's talk about what the drill program is looking to target. You are 150 kilometers east of the Red Lake Gold Camp, which everyone knows right over 20 million ounces of gold there. You're 50 kilometers East of the Springpole Gold Deposit, which is five million ounces of gold. And 20 kilometers northwest of the Golden Patricia Mine, which is just over half a million ounces of gold. You also have a technical team that is among the best in the business. Tell me about the two main targets that you're going to be targeting here with the initial program.

Alex Klenman: Right. Now, I think it's important to realize the size of McVicar at 12, 13,000 hectares, 14,000 hectares, it's big. And what we're looking at, we're targeting two initial zones. But what's great about McVicar is in the old days, we used to call some small drill programs, drill and kills. This isn't the case here with McVicar. It's big enough where there's so many zones to target, but we are going into the two that have stood out in our last year of data compilation and groundwork. And they're at the Bear Head Zone and the Altered Zone.

And the Bear Head is really interesting because it is a newly discovered trend. It's about minimum, 700 meters long. It's open in all directions. We're calling it a high grade gold corridor, and it's just below, it's 500 meters south of the Cello vein, where the historical work on the property has returned some eye popping numbers. We've talked about it in the past. Over 500 gram samples up to 800 grams. BHP did a chip sample program back in the early 90s and the average grade of the 34 chip samples was 28 grams per tonne. So, this is an area that does have gold. It takes systematic exploration and drill programs to piece it all together and delineate a resource. So that's our goal.

The Altered Zone also has some nice results, historical results, six, six, and a half grams over 10 meters was one of the historical holes over at the Altered Zone. So we're going in, we're testing the ground, the Bear Head zone's never been drilled. So that's what's really intriguing for us and compelling and where true discovery can be made. But the project is a Christmas tree with a lot of lights on it. So it'll take a little while for us to get everywhere we want to go, but it starts here in the next few weeks.

Gerardo Del Real: This is a project and correct me if I'm wrong, that was hand picked by Dr. Rob Carpenter and his technical team, who's leading the exploration program. I got to ask you about the state-of-the-art LIDAR coverage of McVicar, because I think that's going to play an important part if you hit the way everyone's hoping that you hit, with the initial 5,000 meter program.

Alex Klenman: Yeah, no, that's very true. Yes. The project was handpicked by Rob and his team for a number of reasons. And I should also mention, if we're talking pedigree here, that the project was initially staked and worked by Perry English, who was the prospector who gave Great Bear their ground. So there's even more, I guess, marquee providence to the project. But at the end of the day, really, they pick these projects because of the upside potential. They're not looking for small deposits. They're looking for million ounce, multimillion ounce deposits to make. And this ground meets the criteria in a number of ways which we've talked about in the past.

Yeah, we did the LIDAR survey, but it's the first time that any really modern techniques have been used on the ground, so LIDAR gives you a topographical really down to literally inches. You can measure topographically what you see, geophysically and geochemically. And that builds sort of a three dimensional look, a real high above, down hole look, if you will, at what the ground is doing. And you're targeting the breaks and the folds and the faults, these are the areas where gold deposition pools. And if you can do this before you put the holes down, if you can use the data and the newer technologies, you're going to lessen your misses, and you're going to improve your chances in a more efficient way. So, that's really what LIDAR and the other things we've done have helped us do. And as I mentioned, we're weeks away from breaking ground, so that's exciting.

Gerardo Del Real: I've always tended to gravitate towards early stage exploration projects that have district scale potential. And you mentioned pedigree. Anytime that I see a project handpicked by someone with the pedigree of Dr. Rob Carpenter and the team and led by you, I can't help but be excited. Let's see what mother nature left behind. I'm excited for the results, anything to add to that?

Alex Klenman: Yeah, here's the state of affairs in this business we're in, and you get a lot of drill speculators. It's like bets on Super Bowl day. So I would caution people to understand the size and scope of McVicar. And that it may take more than one drill program to make the impactful discovery that we're after. But obviously, we'd love to see something early on and we also have a project portfolio. We're not a one trick pony. We've got several other projects of merit that have generated some amazing data over the last year. I would urge anybody of interest to go check our website out and read about the other projects we have as well. But it's great to have a flagship like McVicar. As you mentioned, it's district scale, it's handpicked. It has all the prerequisites you want when you're hunting for elephants. So now we'll see what mother nature has in store for us.

Gerardo Del Real: Where's the market cap at now? I mentioned the 50% move here in the last month. That's really coming from, a very, very low baseline in a 52 week low. Where are we at now?

Alex Klenman: Yeah, no. Well, obviously you could have bought this stock at 10 and a half, 11 cents in the beginning of December, so yeah. We've made a great turn. Our market cap is more around eight or 9 million, I think at this point, maybe 10. We've got about 50, I want to say about 54 million out and we're trading at 18 19 cents. So again, you always ask me these questions and my math is terrible, but I wish I could give you the accurate, but upon discovery, I think that market cap inflates.

Gerardo Del Real: The last time Dr. Carpenter monetized an asset on the back of a discovery he made, what was that sale price like?

Alex Klenman: Yeah. I think that was a $500 million deal with Goldcorp.

Gerardo Del Real: Yeah, you didn't stutter on that one. That's a lot of runway there. Alex, thanks for coming on. I appreciate it.

Alex Klenman: Thank you, Gerardo. Always a pleasure and we'll speak soon.

Gerardo Del Real: All right. Chat soon. Thank you again.