Categories: Base Metals
Topics: General Base Metals

Rockridge Resources (TSX-V: ROCK) President Jordan Trimble & CEO Grant Ewing on High-Grade Hits, Upcoming 43-101 Resource, & Depth Potential at the Knife Lake VMS Project

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the President of Rockridge Resources (TSX-V: ROCK), Mr. Jordan Trimble, along with Rockridge's CEO, Mr. Grant Ewing. Grant, Jordan, good morning to the two of you.

Jordan Trimble: Good morning.

Grant Ewing: Good morning.

Gerardo Del Real: We talked a bit off-air. I mentioned that I think that copper is a coiled spring. The gold market seems to be getting more and more robust. I expect copper to follow along if we can get a trade resolution with China. We all know that trade wars are unsustainable. But in the meantime, I think Rockridge shareholders have a lot to be thankful for. The least of it is the latest assays, right?

You hit some high-grade again at Knife Lake, 15.2 meters that included 2.45% copper equivalent. As important is that it starts at 5.1 meters down, so it's shallow. A lot to get to. Let's get to it, let's talk about the results, and then let's talk about what happens next.

Jordan Trimble: Yes, absolutely. We're very pleased with the results. Again, we continue to hit more high-grade at the project in the deposit area. Very shallow, again most of the historical work and all of the drilling that we've carried out, mind you it's only been just over 1,000 meters and 12 holes, but it's all within 100 meters of surface. So high-grade copper mineralization and some other metals that we're intersecting.

It's important to note, and we've talked about this with the last results that came out, that it's a combination of confirmation drill holes as well as expansion drilling. And a number of these holes that are high-grade results are in zones of the deposit that were previously untested or had very limited amount of drilling. So we expect these higher-grade results to have a positive impact on the resource.

It's a historical resource, so what we are doing next is an NI 43-101 resource estimate. We're looking for a July release date on that. We've just been talking with our technical team on that over the last few weeks. But getting back to the drill results, I'm quite happy with what we've hit here, 15.2 meters of about 2.45% copper equivalent, again near surface. So great results.

That's on the back of what was our best drill hole, which we announced a few weeks ago and we talked about. That was in the third hole, and that was quite a spectacular hole where we had just over 13 meters of what amounted to just over 5% copper equivalent. So very, very high-grade, very good results.

This is all segueing, as I said, into the 43-101, followed by a summer exploration and field program. We're just putting the final touches on that right now, so we'll have news flow on that over the coming months and will likely start that program after the 43-101 is issued, and that will carry us right through into the fall. So lots of news flow coming up over the coming months.

Gerardo Del Real: Grant, with your background, I would love your take. You have to be excited because when we spoke last time, you mentioned that a part of what attracted you to this project was obviously the high-grade nature of it, but the fact that you believe that because it's a VMS deposit, this may represent a remobilized portion of what should be a larger primary VMS deposit. I mentioned that these things tend to happen in clusters. Can you speak to that a bit?

Grant Ewing: Yes, that's really one of the exciting things about this project. We have the Knife Lake deposit. This program has successfully repeated assays that we had 20-plus years ago, and also shown some growth to the deposit. I think one of the exciting things about this project is the fact that VMS deposits often occur in clusters.

This project hasn't really had any deep exploration at all, beyond the 200-meter range in depth. So we see great potential in reviewing the entire land package and testing some of these priority targets we've outlined. The depth potential, as well as near-surface potential in some areas, still exists on the project, certainly.

Gerardo Del Real: Excellent. Jordan, you touched a bit on what's next. Can you just summarize for us briefly there?

Jordan Trimble: Yes, as I said 43-101 is going to be a big milestone for us because that really gives us something to work with going to potentially larger companies, potential strategics, having that in hand, showing what I think is a good starting point for this project with a 43-101 compliant resource, and it's near surface.

As you are well aware, this project we see having a lot of upside potential and discovery potential. The history where you have had a lot of historical work and drilling, but not a lot of work at all in the last 20 years. And that historical work was very much just focused at the deposit area, so we just really have scratched the surface.

There's still a lot of potential to find either satellite or clusters of deposits, VMS deposits. In particular, as Grant was just talking about the depth potential. What we're looking at there, we believe it is a remobilized VMS. So we believe it could have come from a deeper source, a primary source, and there is this theory of an overturned folding. So this part of the deposit, it's been overturned. We see it near-surface, but at depth, there's indication from previous drilling that there is mineralization at depth, and with more drilling and some more work that we're planning to do this summer to refine those targets, I think we could potentially have new discoveries on our hands with future programs.

We look forward to obviously the 43-101. That's going to be a big news release, and that is a big milestone for us, followed by the summer program and news flow generated from that, and then future drill programs on the project.

Gerardo Del Real: Well said, Jordan. Gentlemen, you've hinted at the fact that obviously the 43-101 can serve as a major catalyst to be able to present this project to mid-tiers and majors. Now, it's no secret that there have been several developments, new players in the area. Could you briefly just explain for those that are new to the Rockridge story? Kind of the area play that is setting itself up here, that may provide you that very realistic opportunity of catching the interests of one of these majors that have moved in?

Jordan Trimble: Yes, absolutely. I'll just bring Grant back into this discussion, as Grant's history over the last several years, he has been successful in selling a few junior mining companies. He's been involved with a few discovery stories that have had success and ultimately been acquired, and so Grant will be important in these proceedings going forward. Having the 43-101 and having a resource there that is 43-101 compliant, I think will allow us to attract some interest from some other groups.

I'll just note as we've talked about before, reiterate some of the recent activity in the Flin Flon camp. Just south of us in the McIlvenna Bay deposit and project owned and operated by Foran, a partnership there with Glencore, the largest commodity trading company in the world. They just recently issued a new 43-101 resource estimate at the project, and it's quite impressive numbers. And then over to the east, on the Manitoba side, you have Hudbay obviously has been the big company in the Flin Flon camp for many, many years. They've made a recent discovery at their Lalor operating mine, a new hybrid discovery at depth. So that's really reinvigorated the story there. And then last but not least, another smaller cap company called Rockcliff, again, not to be confused with Rockridge, has recently announced and closed a $30 million bought deal from a private equity group in Europe called Greenstone.

So we've seen money come in for the advancement and development of these VMS deposits, even with smaller companies, so that's quite encouraging for Rockridge. That shows that there is big money coming in to the space,. I think Knife Lake is really our first stepping stone in terms of our project base. I think it's going to serve us well, especially when we get the 43-101 out, and especially as we continue to advance the project over the coming years.

Gerardo Del Real: Grant, Jordan mentioned your experience with majors and monetizing assets in the past. Can you explain to people what mid-tiers and majors look for when they consider joint venturing or earning into a base metal project of this nature?

Grant Ewing: Yes certainly, Gerardo. You know one of the key attributes I think that majors look for at all times when dealing with the juniors is the team assembled, is the team quality. I think at Rockridge, we certainly have that. We've got highly technical people doing the field work for us, and a great, well-rounded board. The project quality, of course, is very important, and as Jordan alluded to here, we're in that historic district that has produced several world-class deposits. The area we're exploring in is certainly under-explored. So we see great potential in attracting attention, just by the fact alone.

Gerardo Del Real: Fantastic. Gentlemen, thank you so much for your time. I'm looking forward to chatting again soon and obviously looking forward to that resource estimate so we can get a better handle on what we are working with, and what the future looks like as far as exploration goes.

Jordan Trimble: Perfect. Thanks, Gerardo.

Grant Ewing: Thank you.

Gerardo Del Real: Thank you, guys.