RJK Explorations Ltd. (TSXV: RJX.A): Gold, Silver and Base Metals Exploration Company, Located in Ontario and British Columbia; Interview with Glenn Kasner, President and CEO
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By Dr. Allen Alper, PhD Economic Geology and Petrology, Columbia University, NYC, USA
on 3/22/2017
RJK Explorations Ltd. (TSXV: RJX.A) is a Canadian mineral exploration company, with a solid focus on gold, having properties located in Ontario and British Columbia. RJK’s advanced Maude Lake Gold property, in Ontario has had over $11 million worth of exploration expenditures, including over 49,000 metres of drilling, pre-stripping for an open-pit, and underground development, utilizing a decline ramp to the 140 metre level. In 2017, RJK intends to increase the non NI43-101 compliant historical gold resource and explore both the open pit and underground production potential. We learned from Glenn Kasner, who is President and CEO of RJK Exploration, that the recent drilling program yielded some high-grade results.
PDAC 2017: Glenn Kasner, President and CEO of RJK Explorations Ltd.
Dr. Allen Alper: This is Dr. Allen Alper, Editor-in-chief of Metals News, interviewing Glenn Kasner who is President and CEO of RJK Explorations Ltd. Could you give our readers/investors an overview of your company, Glenn?
Mr. Glenn Kasner: Sure, Allen. We had a restructuring of our company within the last year and are listed on the TSX-V under the symbol RJX.A. Currently there are 14.9 million shares outstanding.
The company has recently acquired a 100% ownership in a large land package within the Timmins Matheson camp, located on the Destor-Porcupine Fault Zone. This fault zone has produced well in excess of 100 million ounces. This property is a historic property. It's had several operators since the early 1980’s, with approximately 49,000 metres of drilling on it. It's been pre-stripped for it’s open-pit potential. It's had a 6,000 ton surface bulk sample taken out, yielding four grams gold per ton, and metallurgical testing of the ore indicated approximately 93% recoveries, utilizing a typical milling-cyanide leach process. In addition, an underground ramp decline down to the 140 metre level was sunk, so it's somewhat of an advanced project. We took all of the surface and underground historical drilling and put that into a Gemcom modelling system, from which we then completed our own in-house estimate on the historic reserves. This estimate, internal and non NI43-101 compliant, reported approximately 1.2 million tons of about five grams gold per ton. So our current mandate is to bring that resource into the new NI43-101 standards. We think by doing that, we'll be tightening up some of the drill spacings, which will verify that resource. Then with further drilling to depth, we think we can substantially increase the resource. So that's the plan for the company over the next year.
There are several operating mines within close proximity to this project. In addition, there are two gold mills within 20 miles of the project. It would seriously reduce capital spending if we could bring the reserve up and strike a contract for milling at those mills.
Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds very good. Could you tell our readers a bit more about your background, your team and your board?
Mr. Glenn Kasner: Sure. I grew up in the famous northern gold mining town of Kirkland Lake Ontario. My grandfather came from Colorado. He was a silver miner down there and came up to Kirkland Lake when Harry Oakes discovered the Lakeshore Mine here, and the Kirkland Lake gold camp was kicked off producing over 25 million ounces of gold and is still producing today. Unfortunately, he didn't do quite as well as Harry Oakes, but I should mention that the company that I'm running now, RJK Explorations, is his original company formed in 1922.
Dr. Allen Alper: That's great.
Mr. Glenn Kasner: Yes, so my dad was an underground miner all his life. My brother has been involved with public companies. So I've been brought up in the junior mining stock environment. Even when I was a young guy, I worked several summers with old-time prospectors throughout northern Ontario. I went to mining school at the Haileybury School of Mines, so I guess I have been in the business since I was about 15. My brother formed his first public company in 1980, and I took over the helm of RJK in 1998, and have been working to find the big strike ever since.
This project has some legs and I have an excellent and very experienced board. My daughter also works with me as a CFO. She's a graduate of the DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University. She's a chartered accountant and currently she's acts as the Corporate Controller for Kirkland Lake Gold. So she helps me out a lot. She has also been around the industry with my drill jobs and things, but her first real adventure was accompanying me on a mining project into the Amazon when she was 12.
I think we can nicely move this project along and I hope some of our followers will be happy with what we intend to do.
Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds great, very interesting. What makes you feel that this deposit is going to work out?
Mr. Glenn Kasner: It has the room… and with additional drilling we will find out how much more resource there is. Typically, along the Destor-Porcupine, the resources that are found there are quite large. Not always, but most of the time as you go deeper the deposits get richer. Maude Lake has only been drilled down to about the 500 metre level and very sparsely at those depths, so there's lots of room for expansion at depth and along strike. And most importantly, the highest grade historical drill intersection came at the deeper level, over 8 metres grading 17.37 grams per ton. That is over half an ounce gold over more than 25 feet. Typically mines in the area, in Kirkland Lake for instance, the Wright Hargraves Mine went down to 8,500 feet (2,700 metres) deep, still in mineralization, before closing. So there's lots of room to go deeper and hopefully really increase the resources. Once you have something like Maude Lake within a major structure, with dedicated drilling, a mine is made.
Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds very good. Could you say a little bit more about your share structure and finances?
Mr. Glenn Kasner: With the restructuring of the company and including our raise of $575,000 last fall there are approximately 14.9 million shares outstanding at this point in time. That raise was for five million units at 11.5 cents, held by a number of guys that I've known in the Toronto area. So that combined with other investors, there are over 7 million shares closely held. Currently we're doing another raise at the moment to raise funds at 18 cents, and once we get that done we'll be back drilling. We've just come off a small drill program that turned out very well. Our best hole was 5.4 grams gold per ton over 14 metres, so that was a nice intersection, as well as some nice high grade in the other holes over a couple of metres. Throughout the year, we'll be doing additional financings, doing additional drilling in stages so that we can have our share price increase every phase of the project, bump it up every year, with good drilling results, and I'm sure we're going to get there. We intend to increase the stock price and move the project forward without too much dilution.
Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds very good. What are the primary reasons our high-net-worth readers/investors should consider investing in your company?
Mr. Glenn Kasner: I think it's the quality of the project and the people, who are looking after and running the project. People trust me getting us into an advanced level. Also, I think the share price is quite cheap for the project we have, with almost a couple hundred thousand ounces already delineated on the property at minable underground grades. Considering the potential to increase the resource with additional drilling, with high grade gold intersections already shown at the deeper levels and having underground development, I would say, it is a good investment at these entry level prices. Hopefully we'll see increased market activity on the gold side, which will help us move our project along. It's a project, I think, that if people invest at this stock price level, they will see some pretty good returns.
Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds great! Is there anything you'd like to add?
Mr. Glenn Kasner: I just really appreciate, Allen, your taking the time to interview me here. I'm not really good at this, I'm better in the field at the diamond drill rig or sampling our ground, but I think we're going to have a winner this year with this property and my management team.
Dr. Allen Alper: Well I think you're doing a great job explaining your company and the potential, and it sounds very good. Our readers appreciate getting information from a miner, who has been out in the field. You have an amazing background and a great family legacy. That sort of thing does not go unnoticed!
Mr. Glenn Kasner: Thank you, Allen.
http://www.rjkexplorations.com/
Glenn Kasner, President
Telephone: (705) 567-5351
Mobile: (705) 568-7567
info@rjkexplorations.com
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