Categories: Base Metals
Topics: General Base Metals

Rockridge Resources (TSX-V: ROCK)(OTC: RRRLF) CEO Jon Wiesblatt on Encouraging Copper Drill Results & Upcoming Phase-2 Exploration and Drilling Program at Flagship Knife Lake Copper Project, Saskatchewan, Canada

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the CEO of Rockridge Resources — Mr. Jonathan Wiesblatt. Jonathan, how are you today?

Jonathan Wiesblatt: I'm doing great, Gerardo. Thanks for having me again.

Gerardo Del Real: Thanks for coming back on. You had some news this morning. Let me read the headline and then I'm going to play devil's advocate a bit. The headline reads:

Rockridge intersects additional copper mineralization and plans upcoming summer exploration program at the Knife Lake Copper Project.

I would describe — and again, I'm not the geologist and it's not my company, so you correct me if I'm wrong — but I would describe the recently completed diamond drilling program at Knife Lake as a technical success and one that definitely lends itself to encourage more drilling and more exploration. 

But I would also kind of describe it as a program that is still in the early stages of allowing you to vector in to the higher-grade and potential other VMS deposits. We know they don't happen in isolation, right? So I'll let you provide the context on the release and let everyone know how accurate that is.

Jonathan Wiesblatt: So I think what investors really need to key in on here is that this was the first exploration program outside of Knife Lake — the maiden deposit area. So we went 6 kilometers west and we conducted 10 diamond drill holes on an area called Gilbert Lake North and Gilbert Lake South. The targets at that particular area were identified through an airborne geophysical VTEM survey that was conducted last winter — so just this past winter.

Investors really need to understand that we are now applying modern day geological methodologies to going into a region that has been underexplored. In fact, it's never been explored. So when we moved the drill bit to Gilbert, we were very excited and very encouraged by the 10 drill holes and the results that those yielded. 

And it was encouraging enough to start building, debating, and technically creating the next program, which we expect will occur later this summer, as we fly airborne again, to identify more conductivity, more regional targets in and around Knife Lake proper. 

And we designed a drill program that's going to go back and key in on the next deposit; the next discovery in and around the Knife Lake area. So I think those are the real key facts that investors need to pay attention to.

Gerardo Del Real: Do you continue to believe that the deposit is part of a remobilized portion of a primary VMS deposit? I mentioned that these deposits tend to happen in clusters, right? They typically are not one-offs. Is that still the working thesis?

Jonathan Wiesblatt: Absolutely. If you look at some of our regional peers that are operating in the same mining camps as we are, these are the same types of evolutionary steps that those businesses have taken when advancing their VMS deposits, which, again, we know from others and others in the region and our own technical expertise — we know that these occur in clusters. 

And given the modern techniques that we are applying to the Knife Lake Project, we are very encouraged that this is a remobilized portion of a VMS deposit, and we are onto the next deposit; we are onto the next discovery. So we just need to keep going. We need to stay at a plan. We need to be patient and focused and really drive what is the key expertise of this business; it's a technical expertise; it's second to none. 

And as long as we can harness that resource, then I know that we will be successful going forward. I'm very confident in our abilities to continue to drive a very successful exploration program at Knife Lake.

Gerardo Del Real: It's called exploration for a reason. It can take some time. It seems like you have the right team on it and you're vectoring in, pretty aggressively, for a first pass program using modern exploration techniques. 

You mentioned the mining camp, and you mentioned your neighbors. Can you talk a bit about the activity in the surrounding area because it's a busy time?

Jonathan Wiesblatt: Yeah, so one of the big pieces of news that's hit the region is a group based out of Toronto called Fairfax Financial, founded and run by a very famous Canadian investor, Prem Watsa. They recently deployed a hundred million dollars into one of our competing projects — Foran Mining. 

Foran Mining — if your readers aren't familiar with — they're expecting that mine, the McIlvenna Bay Mine, to become the first carbon neutral mining project in the world. This has captured the attention and the imagination of some very large and sophisticated investors.

It's also worth pointing out that — in my history as a capital markets participant — I don't recall many scenarios where Fairfax deployed capital into a mining project. They typically are not overly weighted towards the mining sector. So this was a very eye opening transaction in the mining camp in which Rockridge is currently operating in. 

So a lot of eyeballs now focused in on Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and that part of the country. And we're all going after the same type of geology — so these VMS-style deposits. Very exciting time for Rockridge and all of the other mining companies operating in that part of the world.

Gerardo Del Real: Looking forward to the details on the next exploration program. Thanks for your time today, Jonathan.

Jonathan Wiesblatt: My pleasure. Thank you for having us again.

Gerardo Del Real: Alright, chat soon.

Jonathan Wiesblatt: Okay.