Categories: Base Metals / Precious Metals
Topics: General Base Metals / General Precious Metals

Rockridge Resources (TSX-V: ROCK) CEO Grant Ewing on Upcoming 3,000-Meter Drill Program Following Up on High-Grade Results 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 morning?

Grant Ewing: I'm doing great. Thanks for asking.

Gerardo Del Real: Got some good timing. The last time we chatted we talked about the pending permit for the drilling of your Raney High-Grade Gold Project. A good time to be exploring for gold, a great time to be discovering gold. The market is rewarding success with the drill bit. 

You now have a permit in hand that would allow you to get back out there and hopefully find some more high-grade gold. Can we talk about the good news this morning?

Grant Ewing: Yeah, certainly. We just received our exploration permit. This permits us to get going on the minimum 3,000-meter drill program. We'll follow up on the high-grade hit intercepted in the earlier drilling program we did March-April of this year. We intercepted 28 grams per tonne over 6 meters in that drill program. This program will follow up down plunge from that high-grade intercept, as well as historic high-grade intercepts at the Raney Gold Zone. Then we'll move out along strike and test some of the strike extent to this Raney Gold Zone, which has really just been drill tested over a very small area.

The summer program we recently completed really helped us define this corridor that hosted mineralization better. So we've got a great horizon now to test. It's undrilled outside of the main zone. A good part of this program is testing that strike extent of the Raney Gold Zone.

Gerardo Del Real: Now, the permit allows for exploration for up to three years. Correct?

Grant Ewing: That's correct. Once you've received this permit, if we want to do some modifications it's a simple approval process to modify some of the plan.

Gerardo Del Real: Excellent, great time to be exploring for gold, also a great time to have quality copper projects. Copper's back to the $3 a pound level. It seems like we're going to have a robust second half of the year here the next several months. Can we speak a bit about your other project?

Grant Ewing: Yes. We've also got a copper project, the Knife Lake Project in Northeastern Saskatchewan. It's a copper-dominated massive sulfide deposit where we've defined a significant resource. That project is on the side burner at the moment as we focus on our gold project. But certainly it's a valuable asset for this company. In the coming months, we'll be looking at getting going on that project again.

Gerardo Del Real: Fantastic. Let's talk market cap. That's the opportunity if you happen to hit again at Raney. I know that you had the one intercept that was fantastic. There're a couple that missed as you're just getting to know the geologic model better. I have to believe that you're anticipating success. Can we talk about the market cap? Because I think with any hits during this program, you're going to be off to the races.

Grant Ewing: We've shown a little bit of strength in our share price recently. We've got about 50 million shares outstanding, trading at around the $0.20 Canadian range. So a small market cap. We're fully financed for this program and follow-up programs. We've got just under $2 million in the treasury. This is a great opportunity, I think, for investors. We're financed for an upcoming grill program and very prospective project we're testing.

Gerardo Del Real: Assuming you're successful with the 3,000 meters, do you anticipate maybe adding to that program?

Grant Ewing: Yeah. We've got great flexibility to add to this program with success. That's certainly what we'd consider based on results.

Gerardo Del Real: Fantastic. Early September is when you anticipate drilling commencing?

Grant Ewing: Yeah. Our drilling contract will mobilize over the next 10 days or so, and we'll get drilling by the first part of September.

Gerardo Del Real: Looking forward to it, Grant. Before I let you go, I know your background, I have to get your macro take on the copper space. Can you speak to that a bit? We're clearly in a gold bull market. I personally believe that copper's due for a nice run. We've seen it here the past several weeks. I think it's going to at the very least hold and maybe continue. But again, given your background, can you give us an overview of kind of how you see things playing out?

Grant Ewing: Yeah, agreed. I think the copper market is building a nice base here and we're starting to see some improvement in some of the copper developers and producers. It's a commodity, I think, that will be in short supply as we go forward over the coming years and high-quality copper projects are going to be in high demand, if that occurs.

Gerardo Del Real: Well put. Grant, thank you so much for your time. Can't wait for the drilling to start.

Grant Ewing: Yeah. Thanks very much, Gerardo.

Gerardo Del Real: Chat soon.