Rockridge Resources (TSX-V: ROCK)(OTC: RRRLF) CEO Jonathan Wiesblatt on Revving Up the Drills on an Exciting High-Grade VMS-Style Copper Project in Canada with Higher Copper Prices Right Around the Corner

Jonathan Wiesblatt: I'm doing okay, Gerardo. Just getting ready to start summertime.

Jonathan Wiesblatt: Let's start off with the macro. But before I do, I can tell you that there's a lot of winter coats and parkas in my part of the world. I'm up here in Canada. If any of your readers or listeners want to warm up in the summer, I can send them to the proper place to purchase winter coats. So I'll kick it off starting there.

Let's talk about the macro for a second. We've seen not only copper prices retreat… we've seen all global commodity prices retreat all the way from crude oil all the way down to things like tin, aluminum, steel, etc. So what's really driving that? Let's really unpack that.

We have seen a lot of inflation in the macro economy. And a lot of the things contributing to inflation are some of the supply disruption items that you spoke to. A lot of the supply disruptions go all the way back to the pandemic… back in the early-2020 timeframe where a big chunk of our globe and the economic factors and forces that drive our economy — they shut down. A lot of those channels and infrastructure — they haven't reopened.

And as they've reopened specifically in AsiaPac — China to be more precise — we've seen more and more shutdowns and then restarts. And we've really clogged up the global economy with a lot of the supply disruption. So we're seeing the demand side, as you alluded to, we've seen it slow down.

Now, with that being said, we've seen inflation spike. We've seen prices for goods rise across all of the various commodities and sub sectors. And that's created an environment where the Fed… and we have seen the eurozone and other Western G7 countries follow suit; we've seen the rising of interest rates off of their historic all-time lows.

And this has really caused some pressure in the markets specifically creating recessionary fears. When you have recessionary fears coupled by global supply and infrastructure disruptions, you get a really big fear of recession and economic slowdown. So that's why we've seen commodity prices decline.

However, I stand by my view that supply of important global commodities with a very robust demand backdrop such as copper… I see the supply being very constrained for the next 5 to 10 years. The reason for that is very simple: there's been a global lack of CapEx and investments in new copper supply, in most commodity supplies, for the previous decade.

When you have those types of macroeconomic forces and lack of investment in a sector in an important commodity — you get supply disruptions. And as demand recovers over the next few years, we're going to be very hard-pressed to supply the market. So very bullish on copper prices. We've seen it retreat from the US$4.75 - US$4.80 level down to like the US$3.75 - US$3.70 level at present and getting very, very bullish.

If you don't have any other questions, we can talk a little bit about Rockridge and what kind of program we're embarking upon and why it's important for our shares, which are trading at an incredibly, incredibly depressed price level.

Jonathan Wiesblatt: Yeah, so there is greater than 200 million pounds of copper sitting in Saskatchewan, which is a very friendly mining jurisdiction right here in Canada. The most important part about that deposit — although on the smaller side and we would like to just advance the size of that resource — it is just about at surface. It has very good grades, and there is excellent exploration opportunity and prospectivity for a company such as ours to go in and really drive the size of that resource higher.

And when you look at our resource relative to others, it's very similar to some larger, more robust VMS-style deposits in the region. So we just have to get our program and get our drilling campaigns prepared and ready and hopefully follow up with some really good results.

Jonathan Wiesblatt: Exactly. And not only has this type of geology and this type of exploration technique identified at or near-surface deposits but they've also extended length. Fifteen kilometers is a pretty large area for us to get into and to start to explore.

Jonathan Wiesblatt: Yes, so we completed 3D geophysical plate modeling of recently acquired VTEM data. That's unique because part of the thesis at Rockridge is applying some of these more modern exploration techniques to areas that have never been explored with those types of techniques. And they're really very applicable in this part of the world.

So the purpose was to further refine targeting for the upcoming drill program, as you quoted, which starts mid-July. And we should start to see results from that program in the weeks following mid-July.

The VTEM data that we're looking at right now shows up to 15 kilometers of strike length of highly-conductive — and a really important point here — near-surface anomalies, which are hosted in this prospective rock. The focus of the upcoming drilling campaign, again, is to focus on one of the key target areas called Gilbert Lake.

And that was the area that we really keyed in on last summer. And we're super excited to get more positive geophysical data that will enable us to go back and really refine our search for more copper. Gilbert Lake hit our radar; it posts the 2021 geophysical and drilling campaign as I just mentioned. And we really believe that the VTEM is a great tool for identifying new zones of VMS-style mineralization, which, as your readers should understand now, that's what we're chasing.

So right now, we're finalizing the high-priority drill targets. We've signed up all of the contractors. The camp is being built. The drilling company that we've outsourced is ready to go. And we're super excited to get back to Gilbert Lake and try to really hone in on the next new exciting deposit at Knife Lake.

Jonathan Wiesblatt: Yeah, there's been a lot of interesting capital to come into the sector and come into the region. Foran Mining, which has been a phenomenal success story, is to the south of us. Some big players, some large financial organizations have injected a lot of equity into this particular company in order for it to go and develop its own VMS, which is now going to be a mine in the very near-term.

And then, there's a bunch of other very large, robust organizations that have been operating in the region for many, many years. They continue to drive capital into the region. Hudbay, for example, has been a clear leader in this space for many years. So a lot of focus, a lot of attention on this particular part of the country and these types of deposits.

Jonathan Wiesblatt: You bet.

Jonathan Wiesblatt: No, I really appreciate the time, as always, and hopefully we'll be able to share some really encouraging results with you and your audience over the next couple of months.

Jonathan Wiesblatt: Thank you.