Categories: Precious Metals
Topics: General Precious Metals

Rockridge Resources (TSX-V: ROCK)(OTC: RRRLF) CEO Jonathan Wiesblatt on Drilling at High-Grade Raney Gold Project

 

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the CEO of Rockridge Resources, Mr. Jon Wiesblatt. Jon, it's great to have you back on. How are you today?

Jonathan Wiesblatt: Doing great, Gerardo. Thanks for having us on again. Really appreciate it.

Gerardo Del Real: Anytime, anytime. Listen, let's get right into it. You have essentially a co-flagship setup there with a copper project that has a robust historic resource, great exploration upside. And you also have yourselves a high grade gold project, the Raney Gold project, which look despite the dollar index being robustly above the 104 level, the gold price is pretty darn close to reaching that $2,000 level again. I think the second half of this year is going to present a pretty rapid re-rating for a lot of the better juniors that are out there doing quality exploration work and providing their shareholders shots on goal for a discovery. And it looks like you're taking a swing at it with the Raney Gold project in Timmons in Ontario.

Jonathan Wiesblatt: Yeah, you're absolutely right. So to start with, Gerardo, we have two foundational co-flagship properties. One is our copper VMS play in northern Saskatchewan, which we've talked about many times. It's been really the focus of our exploration initiatives over the last few years. Battery metals, a robust copper price, a really strong macro-economic background supply and demand for the price of copper today, and going forward, we spent a lot of time talking about that. But I really want to get the investors and the shareholders of Rockridge really excited about the upcoming work that we're planning for our Raney Gold project. And really the reason for it being a foundational asset is really twofold. Number one, it's really in the right real estate. So we are very, very close to, in close proximity to the Newmont Borden Mine 35 kilometers away, and also in very close proximity to the Cote Project, which is owned by IAMGOLD, multimillion dollars of high grade gold. So we really like Raney. It's in a phenomenal, phenomenal part of the world for high grade gold mineralization. So that's number one.

Number two is we've been at the property in the past. We drilled 5,000 meters more or less back in 2020, and really had a very successful campaign outlining the mineralization, the depth of the occurrence of that mineralization. And we really had a highlight hole for 28 grams per tonne over six meters. We haven't been back in a couple years because we've been really preoccupied with our earn in into Knife Lake, which we now own 100% of. But now that that campaign is behind us and we own 100%, we're really ready to direct our attention and our resources towards the Raney Gold project.

Gerardo Del Real: I like the fact that you contextualized the historic drilling because that 28 gram of gold per tonne over six meters was right around the hundred meter depth level, if I remember correctly. And I know that there's a structural corridor that's at the very least 125 meters wide and extends well beyond the area that you've tested in the past by drilling. Are you excited about being able to vector into some of that higher grade core when you get there?

Jonathan Wiesblatt: Yeah, you're absolutely right. That is one of the key features of this drilling program. In addition to that, the plan here is to go and evaluate the strike, the depth and the expansion potential of the high grade zones that have already been discovered, including that in the hole that you quoted, the 28 gram per tonne over six meters. We do not believe that this is anomalous to this land package. And it is very, very exciting and prospective for us to get back into it. So we're going to be drilling a minimum of 2,500 meters with the potential to expand. That's going to be 10 to 12 holes to start. Again, we hit some very, very good intercepts back in 2020, which we would like to follow up on. More specifically, the program is going to test the eastward and the westward continuity of the main Raney Gold zone. We think that we can extend the strike length of this area. The plan is also to test the extension of the zone in the east and west directions, and that's really going to be the key focus of this program, Gerardo.

Gerardo Del Real: Well, I'm looking forward to having you back on as the results start trickling in. We've been in these markets, Jon, long enough to know that all it takes is a slight change in sentiment in the space and one drill hole, and you can be off to the races really, really quick. Just for context, what's the market cap at today?

Jonathan Wiesblatt: Yeah, so we're sitting around three to three and a half million depending on the bid and the ask. So we are in very micro-cap territory with an asset in Saskatchewan with a greater than 200 million pounds of high grade copper at surface, and a very exciting gold exploration play right in our backyard in Timmons, Ontario. The market cap, there's a really big disconnect between perception and reality here, and that's really, Gerardo, as you and your listeners all know, that's what creates the opportunity for investors. So super excited to get some news to the market. Hopefully we bring some very encouraging and exciting results, and our market cap won't be at these levels for too long.

Gerardo Del Real: Yep. You get copper exposure. You get gold exposure. You get it at a tiny valuation. It's buy low, sell high, folks. You got to do one to do the other. Thanks again for your time, Jon.

Jonathan Wiesblatt: My pleasure. Thank you very much, Gerardo.

Gerardo Del Real: All right, chat soon.