Categories: Precious Metals
Topics: General Precious Metals

Cross River Ventures (CSE: CRVC)(OTC: CSRVF) CEO Alex Klenman on Phase 1 Field Work at Manitou 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?

Alex Klenman: I'm good, Gerardo. Always nice to get on the phone with you and go through what's going on with Cross River. Things are heating up.

Gerardo Del Real: Let's get into it. The headline reads, Cross River Begins Phase One Field Work At The Manitou Gold Project in Northwest Ontario, Canada. Obviously this isn't the splashy kind of headline that gets everybody excited. But I have to say at the current market cap, given the technical team, given the projects and how vetted they were, I think everybody should be doing some due diligence on Cross River. Can you tell us more about this project and how it came to be in the portfolio and why the team is so excited about it?

Alex Klenman: Absolutely. Last fall we made a splash when we acquired a private company called Northern Dominion Metals. Within that company, there was a portfolio of projects in Northwestern Ontario. And it was pieced together by a group of very accomplished veteran people in the business, including Rob Carpenter and some of the other people on his technical team. So we knew just getting those projects that for them to be included and to have already been identified by Rob and his team and the others, that they had already met stringent criteria for gold exploration. They're highly prospective properties in the right areas. They have just enough exploration done on them to show you there's something there, but not enough where you question, how could it have ever been missed?

So this is really the beginning of what we said we were going to do. One of the things that we find in this business now is attention spans are pretty light. They're pretty fleeting which is probably why our market cap is the way it is right now. We're not drilling tomorrow. But we are following a very methodical exploration path that has been put in place by the technical team. And this is exactly what we said we were going to do. We're beginning our field work.

The first project in the field work campaigns is Manitou 6,500 hectares located in the Uchi Subprovince, so an area that's known for gold endowment. There's a couple of really interesting trends that have been previously identified on the property. One of them has got five kilometers strike length with grab samples up to 78 grams per tonne. There's another two kilometer strike there as well that shows a lot of promise. And so we're excited. We're actually getting on the ground now. People are on the ground. It's no longer a desk-oriented data compilation. We've now crossed over to the next phase which is fieldwork. So that's exciting for us.

Gerardo Del Real: Excellent. And that fieldwork will include prospecting, mapping I'm assuming?

Alex Klenman: Yeah. Getting on the ground and going through the historical areas of interest, identifying new areas of interest, doing some sampling, some till work, getting a feel for where we're going to make the priority drill targets on this property. And I don't think it's too far off. I mean, we're flying LIDAR surveys on the projects as well that they begin next week. The LIDAR surveys will also give us a lot of data, i.e. where the folds, breaks and cracks are in the structures, which is where you get your gold deposition. You need these cracks for the fluids to get closer to surface. And that's what LIDAR does. And then the combination accumulation of all this work gets us to drill ready later in the year. But we're certainly... Look, it's already May 13th. I mean, you and I started talking, when? Last fall?

Gerardo Del Real: Yep.

Alex Klenman: So yeah, here we are. The stock has come back to earth for a number of reasons. And it's funny. Everybody talks about the price of gold. But look, we're actually up five percent from where we were a year ago in the terms of the price of gold. We're up four percent from 30 days ago. So gold is not getting beaten down. It's just this, what have you done for me lately? And the sentiment has hasn't arrived. So gold price may be where it's at. I'm not uncomfortable with $1,826 gold at all. I think what has to happen is we need another run towards $1,900 to get sentiment back. And then sentiment will drive the sector as it always does.

Gerardo Del Real: Well you're not uncomfortable and neither are producers or royalty companies, which have been reporting some excellent, excellent numbers. And we all know, I think we're entering a golden era of exploration because of the lack of investment in exploration for over a decade. And the bottom line is these producers either replenish those reserves and replace them or they go away. And they're not going away. So I think a company like Cross River that has over 28,000 hectares among multiple projects in the portfolio with a market cap of where is it today, Alex?

Alex Klenman: Well, we've got about 30 million shares out. We're trading around 16 cents. So my math isn't that good.

Gerardo Del Real: Let's say sub-five million Canadian. I mean, that's the opportunity. And it doesn't take much to go from five to 50 million. We've said it in the past. I've seen multiple cycles, multiple markets. I think by year end, we'll be looking back and laughing at these prices.

Alex Klenman: Oh listen, it's my job to say I agree with you, but I do agree with you. Buy in the open market. I put my money where my mouth is. I'm not a McEwen or a Giustra. I don't have the juice that those guys have to buy their own stock. But I'm certainly, I'm in there. I see the value proposition staring me in the face. You have to know that when majors want to replenish, these come from geographically favorable areas when these discoveries are made. Red Lake, obviously Great Bear. What happened with newfound gold in Newfoundland, again, very underexplored place on the planet for gold. The Northwestern Ontario Archean belts are underexplored relative to the land mass. So you've got some areas, Pickle Crow, and Red Lake proper, and some areas within those belts that have had some attention. But there's so much ground that hasn't. But geologically speaking, there's not much of a difference between what's going on in Red Lake and Pickle Crow and the rest of those Archean belts.

And we're right there. So we like our chances. We like who's leading the exploration efforts here. And I think, like you say, a few months from now, we'll be looking back at 16 cents in a rear view mirror going, "Yeah. I mean, might've been a good time to pick it up."

Gerardo Del Real: Agreed, agreed. Alex, thank you so much for the update. I'm looking forward to results from the field work and seeing what that leads to, which of course, if it's successful, you're going to have a phase two exploration program, right?

Alex Klenman: Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Thank you for that. And I should mention just one other thing that there'll be lots more news flow now as work with LIDAR and groundwork at the different projects begin. So we'll kind of wake up from a little quiet slumber, which was the data compilation time. But we're ready to go.

Gerardo Del Real: Looking forward to it. Alex, thanks for the update.

Alex Klenman: I appreciate it. Thanks so much, Gerardo.