Categories: General Market Commentary / Precious Metals
Topics: General Market Commentary / General Precious Metals

Rockridge Resources (TSX-V: ROCK) CEO Grant Ewing on Phase 1 Drill Program at the Raney Gold Project in Ontario

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the CEO of Rockridge Resources (TSX-V: ROCK)(OTC: RRRLF), Mr. Grant Ewing. Grant, how are you this afternoon?

Grant Ewing: I'm doing excellent, thank you.

Gerardo Del Real: Exciting news this morning. A couple of things. One, gold looks to be flirting with that $1,650 to $1,670 range. We're about $1,646 as we speak. I couldn't think of a better time for Rockridge to commence drilling on the Raney Gold project. It's a first pass, phase 1 program. Can you provide some details on the target?

Grant Ewing: Yes, certainly. We're pretty excited about the timing. Gold's trading at probably 7-year highs or so right now. And we're just about to embark on the first drilling program at our high-grade Raney Gold project. We got the drills that hit the site just on the weekend just passed, so the drill will be turning very soon. 

The last time this project was drilled was about 10 years ago. The previous operator left the site after drilling about a 6.5 gram per tonne over 8 meter intercept. And gold, at the time, was trading substantially lower. So this is a great time to be back into this project and looking to expand on that historic intercept.

Gerardo Del Real: Now, we've talked in the past about the target. You know there's gold-bearing structures, you believe there's additional structures. Can you speak to that and how you're approaching the targets?

Grant Ewing: Yeah, so we've got a project that was explored not real extensively in the past. A few various operators over the years did some trenching, some limited diamond drilling. About a 400-meter-plus long mineralized shear zone was identified with the previous work. The best intercept drilled was at about the 100 meters subsurface level, and that was the 6.5 gram per tonne over 8 meter intercept. This wasn't followed up primarily due to the  low price of gold at the time. And then, also they would've required drill set up on small water bodies. So that sort of prohibited them from following up on this drill intercept at the time.

We've also spent quite a bit of time assessing the historic data and we've come up with a new geologic model that we think fits better with this deposit style we're pursuing here. We think this extensive shear zone at surface now dips to the south versus an historic interpretation, which had it dipping steeply to the north. 

This is important because the continuity of the zones that were drilled in the past tie together better with this new geologic model. It also opens up the strike, or along trend potential of this, as some of the historic drilling may have missed the target zone, if this structure indeed dips south.

Gerardo Del Real: You mentioned that historic intercept of 8 meters of 6.5 grams tonne gold, I believe. Is this the zone where the 7 to 10 holes are going for these 2,000 meters?

Grant Ewing: Yeah. So we'll target this phase 1 of the drill program, 7 to 10 holes starting out right in that area. We'll test our new geologic model and look to expand that intercept, 6.5 gram over 8 meters, along trend and down plunge at depth. 

So it should be exciting to get in there. First hole should be able to tell us quite a lot on how things are going to turn out with this program.

Gerardo Del Real: How long do you anticipate the program to take?

Grant Ewing: It'll take probably around a 60-day time period, roughly. We'll drill these holes, have them logged, and processed as we progress through the program. So we'd look to see first results probably in about 6 weeks time or so, roughly from first drilling.

Gerardo Del Real: Well, I know the project has excellent access. It has excellent infrastructure. I also know that you have a tiny market cap, so any discovery of significance could be very important for the company. 

Is there anything else that you'd like to add, Grant?

Grant Ewing: Yeah, that's precisely it. We're really focused on exploration, discovery, and resource development with Rockridge. We've got another high-quality project, a copper-dominated project that we'll look at later in the year as well. 

So we've got some exciting assets, just a very small market cap, and a very tight share structure. We're a relatively new company. So we think that with some drill bit success, we could really deliver some shareholder value here.

Gerardo Del Real: Before I let you go, will you be at PDAC?

Grant Ewing: Yes, we'll be there. Our team will be there, and we'll be actively participating in the trade show.

Gerardo Del Real: Fantastic. Grant, thank you so much. Appreciate the time. Look forward to updates.

Grant Ewing: Excellent. Talk to you again soon.