Categories: Base Metals
Topics: General Base Metals

Rockridge Resources (TSX-V: ROCK) CEO Jordan Trimble on First Modern Drill Program at the Knife Lake Copper VMS Project in Saskatchewan

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the President and CEO of Rockridge Resources (TSX-V: ROCK), Mr. Jordan Trimble. Jordan, how are you?

Jordan Trimble: I'm doing good, thanks. Thanks for having me.

Gerardo Del Real: Exciting news. You've commenced diamond drilling at the Knife Lake Copper VMS Project in Saskatchewan. Before we get into the details of that program, can you do me a huge favor, Jordan? Because Rock Ridge is a newer company, can you provide just a brief overview of the project? Then let's talk about the details of the drilling.

Jordan Trimble: Yeah, absolutely. As you’re well aware, we took this company public recently. We announced the Knife Lake Project acquisition late last year, in conjunction with a small financing, as we steer the company in the direction of copper and base metal exploration in Canada.

Really, something to highlight with this company is the overarching strategy. We're going into historical, prolific mining districts in good jurisdictions like Saskatchewan, number three in the world as ranked by the Fraser Institute. We're going into projects that have had a lot of historical exploration, but not a lot of recent exploration. In the case of Knife Lake, you had a lot of exploration drilling in the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s. Then it was more or less just orphaned in the 2000s. There's various reasons for that, I believe we spoke a little bit about that in our last interview.

But, it's intriguing because it was really just overlooked for the better part of the last 15-20 years. There's still a lot of potential there. There's still a lot of discovery, upside potential. There's a historical resource there that this drill program is going to be focused at. It's an 85,000-hectare project. A lot of regional potential. We like to go into projects like a Knife Lake, that's had a lot of historical work, not a lot of modern work, and go in there with new techniques, methodologies and go and test some new ideas to create shareholder value. That's exactly what we're doing. This 1,000-meter drill program that we've just announced, that's just commenced, is our first kick at the can on this project.

Gerardo Del Real: Excellent. The last time we spoke, we touched on the team that you'd been able to put together. You've made an addition since then. Can you share the details on that?

Jordan Trimble: Yeah, absolutely. I believe the last time we spoke we had announced Ron Netolitzky, Canadian Mining Hall of Famer, joining the advisory board, and he's a large shareholder. And more recently, we announced a gentleman, Joseph Gallucci, who has joined as a Director of the company. And Joe's a well-known investment banker in the industry. He was a Principal at Eight Capital. He led their mining investment banking team there for the last several years. He's raised a lot of money for base metal companies in Canada, well over a billion dollars. He's worked with some of the largest companies. He really knows specifically Saskatchewan-Manitoba VMS projects well, having worked with Hudbay and other companies in the area. A very important part of the team. He's going to help us run the company, as I mentioned previously, and assembling a team around us to help us run the company. He's got focus expertise in this part of Canada.

Gerardo Del Real: You mentioned the fact that this is a VMS project. Something that's interesting to me is one, I know those tend to happen in clusters. And two, most of the historical work, from what I understand, didn't really dig deep. There was a lot of shallow drilling. I have to believe you're excited about the discovery potential at depth and of course regionally, being that it's a VMS deposit.

Jordan Trimble: Yeah. That's one of the most exciting parts of this project, the historical deposit is on a topographic high. It stuck out like a sore thumb when it was discovered in the late ‘60s. They did a lot of drilling, basically to delineate a near-surface resource, really only having drilled down to about 100 meters. A lot of the historical work was focused on potential open pitiable mineralization. And as a VMS resource or deposit, you typically don't find them in isolation. You always tend to find satellite, or clusters, of deposits. Now, Knife Lake is very intriguing because it's a re-mobilized VMS deposit. It was re-mobilized during the emplacement of granitic rocks. Therefore, it’s come from presumably a larger primary VMS source or deposit, somewhere nearby.

We can tell that by the mineralogy, the mineral textures, and the metal ratios in the deposit. Having just this one deposit, an historical resource that was discovered decades ago, and then not a lot of regional work around it in that 85,000-hectare land package that we're acquiring. That's something that we want to go in and test. We think there's a lot more to be found there in the vicinity of the historical deposit, both along strike and at depth, it's open. But also, in the broader land package. We're going to be going in there this year with new geophysical techniques. For example, some new EM surveys that can penetrate a little bit deeper. Doing some groundwork as well. We think that there's a lot more that can be found with these new techniques.

Gerardo Del Real: Excellent. 8 to 10 diamond drill holes, approximately 1,000 meters. Is that correct?

Jordan Trimble: Yeah, that's correct. Most of them will be relatively shallow. There's a few main strategies for this drill program objectives. One is to confirm the tenure mineralization reported by previous operators and drillers at the project. But also to expand the known zones of mineralization. There's a historical resource there, we think we can upgrade it. We think we can make some new discoveries, find some new mineralization.

And this drill program should put us in a position to issue a maiden NI 43-101 compliant resource estimate, which will be a big milestone for the company in the next several months. We think we should be able to get it out here after drill results and going into the summer months.

And then we are also planning for a summer exploration field program, which will be more of a regional focus. Again, looking for satellite deposits, or hopefully finding that primary source of mineralization, that primary deposit. That's really where there could be the biggest discovery, upside potential. Yeah, it's exciting. Again, it's our first program since acquiring the project. We're going to be aggressively exploring it going forward.

Gerardo Del Real: Lot of upside. Market cap right now, I believe, is approximately $6 million Canadian. Is that accurate?

Jordan Trimble: Yeah. It's about $6 million Canadian. We just closed a flow-through financing, over-subscribed from about half a million dollars to just over $700,000. We have just under $2 million in the treasury. The drilling and the exploration going forward this year is fully funded. We're keen to get out there. It's well structured, as we talked about in the previous interview, too. I think this is a very important point to highlight. 23 million shares issued and outstanding. A new company, the public float is relatively small. Lots of notable shareholders in there, as well. It's got all the right ingredients.

Gerardo Del Real: I love it. Jordan, I'm looking forward to drill results. I gather you'll know pretty quickly how things are coming along, as is the case with base metal projects. Right?

Jordan Trimble: Yeah, absolutely. You can get a pretty good indication from the drill core. Like I said, the focus for this initial drill program is going back into and around the deposit, the historical resource, and then working toward issuing a maiden resource NI 43-101 compliant resource estimate.

Gerardo Del Real: Fantastic. Jordan, thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it.

Jordan Trimble: Thanks, Gerardo.