Radisson Mining: O'Brien Gold Project Continues to Grow at Depth

0:14Trevor Hall: All right, everybody, welcome back into Mining Stock Daily. Radisson Mining continues to have drill results, which continue to expand the O 'Brien gold mine. And last week they did publish new drill results with some new interesting hits. New areas, actually. We're going to get some commentary on these drill results, including some from earlier in the fall. Because it's been a while since we've had that update with Radisson. Happy to welcome in CEO Matt Manson. Matt, last time you and I were able to chat offline was in London during the Gentile Roadshow. Sat in on your presentation. You got some really good questions.

0:54Trevor Hall: And, uh, you know, I think it's, to be honest with you, when I sat there, it's like, this is beginning to, the story is kind of really compelling, right? I mean, it's always been compelling, but you're able to really kind of bring this all together with the visuals and the expansion, the deep drilling and, you know, with potential underground, uh, uh, exploration drilling as well. I mean, there were some pretty intrigued faces in that room. yeah i i think you know the story of radisson or brian is changing from while we've got this nice old mine that's got some new gold around it and we're giving you some drill results every now and again to a very specific path right and i think people can begin to see right it's growing very fast and that's principally by having the courage to go as deep as we possibly can um and and it's still there we haven't found the bottom of this thing so we're not going to draw results and we're delivering growth which is being reflected in valuation of the company you know in a in a very good way over the last two years um now an eco ego has come in for a 10.5 interest 57 million dollars canadian and that's specifically to finance the first modern ramp access to the project we're going to go underground and so when i was speaking in london and when you're in that audience i was sort of talking about two legs of the stool right that's kind of you know the the expiration continues on it doesn't stop and we you know we there's 2.3 million ounces there we're we're saying there's going to be a new resource update at the end of the year plus plus or minus depending upon how that work goes but so more like the end of the year and then uh uh but the drilling continues on to 27 new resource update at the end of that we're doing them step by step during the progress we expect the next resource update will be a healthy step upwards we're stepping upwards all the time and the target we're guiding to is upwards of four million ounces um if everything continues down to a certain exploration floor which is two kilometers and we're drilling deeper than that so that's that's really healthy but the the you know now we've got this investment from agnico they of course are the owners of the mine over the back fence laronde three kilometers away which we we can't be blind to to that to that situation and And not being blind to that situation means not being blind to the fact they've got a three kilometer deep shaft.

3:11There at Laurent, the Pena shaft, which is within three kilometers of our project. So this explains why we've got no fear of going as deep as we can with the drilling, right? Because we are probably, I think, there are high-grade quartz sulfide vein deposits around the world. It's not an uncommon geological setting. There's several of them in the Abitibi in Quebec. we're in the Pichet formation, there's several of those. So it's a well understood deposit site, but I think we can say confidently, we're the only one in the world, I think, that's got a three kilometer deep major production shaft currently operating within three kilometers of this resource.

3:52So that is guiding our exploration thinking and how far we go. And now when Nico had come in with this investment, I think that's very validating, number one, for all the technical work that's going on here, because they're a serious company that do professional work. So they don't casually kind of, $57 million is a big ticket even for them. But that's very specific investment. It's funding this ramp access, which is going to get us underground and get us to grip with the deposit underground. And that's a major development step. So everything is flowing in the same direction here. Now I think the story is much more clear, I think, as to what's happening.

4:29Trevor Hall: Yeah, I think so too. And I have to say, if you liked Radisson with the announcement after Agnico came in, you'd like it now because obviously there's been some volatility in these markets. And you can get it even cheaper now than Agnico paid for it. So that's a pretty compelling story in itself if you're looking at that. It just kind of comes along with these volatile markets. But let's do focus on the exploration here, Matt. Obviously, aggressive drilling, good results here. What's been that most significant development in your understanding of this deposit over the last couple of months? I think if you've been following our drill results, we're now clustering the results.

5:10We've got eight rigs going, and we're able to sort of show you, okay, here's a bunch of results in this part of the deposit. Here's a bunch of results in this part. Here's this part. So the press release this week was under the western part of the old mine. If you're picturing a long section here, you've got the old mine in gray. that's the graphic we use to get all the colors of the new resource below the old mine onto the east this is the central and western parts of the old mine which was a bit skinny in terms of the old stops and where they were working the main zone was on the what's called a brown mine east the eastern part of the old mine the western part of the old mine was a bit patchy a bit skinny what we're finding out that we know the high grid of the old mine they took the eyes out of it they left a lot of material behind that was below their probably eight grand cut off right so that's all ore for us now and we're seeing as we drove below the western and central parts of the mine it's all there right so we've got this weird kind of horizontal line in our developing resource which kind of starts at the at the at about a thousand meters there's nothing above it because that's the old mine where they weren't mining this material and now below that thousand kilometer line it's we're reflecting in us always resource you've got this kind of artificial line in the resource and it all starts below there so that was that was that was successful um and in that pressure is also we were telling a little bit of a different story we were highlighting the fact that as we drill down towards the target area what's called the pichet formation we're going through this big slug of metacenamentary rocks called the pontiac formation and we're hitting gold in as we go down and we've had sort of one-off exciting hits as we go down uh including the best ever drill result which was 1.6 kilograms per tonne over a meter within 300 grams over what was it over six meters that was in july and that was a record ever and the record a record intercepted o 'brien is a meaningful thing because it's had a lot of high grade hits in the past that was actually in the pontiac and it was isolated and we're head scratching here what's going on we did a technical webinar soon after that and we were talking about that a little bit So in this drill result, press release on this week on Wednesday, we had a bunch more, not quite 1.6 kilograms, but some nice stuff in the same general area at the same level down.

7:27It's now almost a kilometer separation, but at the same 700, 750 meter level, 200 meters out from the Pichet formation. So we're, you know, we're transiting through this shoebox area where these isolated things are hitting. So there's obviously something going on there, right? And we cautioned that we didn't know, you know, we've got a few drill holes I've gone through here now. It's a kilometer wide. You know, we don't quite know how it all hangs together, right? It may prove to be something really interesting or it may prove to be just a demonstration of lots of gold here and there in the Pontiac.

8:01It's not in the resource right now, but it was significant enough and it's recurring often enough now in this particular area that we wanted to highlight on that press release. but all for the last few months every four six weeks uh we're putting a drill results press release and we're we always highlight this the hit rate right we have this press table in our press releases that shows you the number of holes that gave us a an a core length intercept that was three grams or better we you know we often get better than that but three grams or better we true up to something that's two grams or better and that's our bottom cutoff for the resource so if we get something like that we know it's probably going to go into a future resource calculation so so that's a hit and then we give you a scorecard of the hit somewhere like 83 percent after i think 130 140 holes now since this step out drilling methodology started it's been

8:51Trevor Hall: remarkably consistent yeah really yeah remarkably consistent yeah yeah we had the team we had the team in montreal this week for the explorer conference and that's a that's the uh quebec exploration association conference so lots of joel just walking around and we're reflecting with everybody that we have a very rewarding ore body right we we don't have to worry about having you know a bunch of duster holes that we've got to because we put out every hole we put out every hole sequentially we don't hold anything back we never have a situation where we're worrying that we don't have a you know data where they oppressor this thing because we always seem to get we always seem to hit it's a very predictable rewarding ore body to drill yeah so this this this what you're encountering within that Pontiac group is quite interesting.

9:36Trevor Hall: And I'm glad you're very honest with me and the listeners. You don't quite understand or know what it is, but obviously it's something of immense interest that you will continue to go back and continue trying to define exactly what that is. Can you tell me how the future drilling maybe, has it changed at all? Or do you evolve it a little bit to go after that Pontiac group a little bit more just so you can further define it and maybe potentially add it into a resource? Yeah, I think we are. That's a discussion we're having right now. And I think that the answer is, you know, we're keeping our eye on the prize here.

10:19And the prize is there was a graphic in that press release. I think it's figure three, and it shows you a sandwich, which is the Pichet formation, and there's one surface, which is the upper contact of the Pichet with the Pontiac, and the lower contact is the Cadillac lower leg break. So it looks like a big jam sandwich, and you see all of the hits in the sandwich, in the jam of the sandwich, just filling up with hits, right? So that is our mineralized vein system within the Pichet formation, and that's where the millions of ounces are. that's where the mineable deposit is that's that's what the old mine was we understand that really well and that's the future mine again and then that graphic was presented for the purpose of showing you where these pontiac hits were which are in the hanging wall so the left on our southern parts of the sandwich and we're showing you that they're clustering and they're kind of hanging out there we didn't try to draw any geological interpretation around that we just showed you well, here's the clustering, and that's kind of interesting, right?

11:24And some of the numbers are pretty big, right? That 1.6 kilogram, there was a 44 grammer in that over one meter. And we're always getting the same geologic expression, by the way. We get these wider alteration envelopes with the vein in the middle. The vein will give us the one meter intercept, you know, 10, 20, 30, 40, 300 grams per ton over the meter, but it's always a longer intercept, which might be 3, 4, five six seven grams and that is us capturing the alteration envelope within which you have the vein in the middle so it's always the same pattern of disclosure so but we're getting these really interesting hits out there and that graphic figure three was showing you where that was but but your eyes should also be drawn to the jam sandwich right that is the prize so all of the drilling the eight rigs these long holes the dollar spent to do it is going after the jam and the sandwich here and that's with and within that piche information is where we're guiding to our birds of four million ounces you know a lot of geological exploration and i'm saying this as a geologist is kind of hindsight driven right you kind of you know you kind of you have your sophisticated structure or geochemical or geological explanation as to what's going on only after you've drilled you know hundreds of thousands of meters of drilling and you have all this data and it's like the picture is drawn right our ability as an industry as a profession to be genuinely predictive right with with with sparse data as to what's going on and then use that as a guide to have a genuine success in in discovery that actually is surprisingly rare right and again you know i've got a phd in geology so i'm sort of shooting my own profession in the food here, but, you know, so a lot of it's hindsight driven, right?

13:10And there's a, there's a, there's a truism that you only really understand what's controlling the mineralization in the mine once it's mined out, right? And you've got the full picture after 30 years of data and intimate understanding with the rocks. So I feel like this Pontiac thing that's going on for us is a little bit like that, right? We, you know, we, we, we, we, we'll, you know, at some stage that'll be well understood right and we are going through that area just by by fact of targeting the stuff lower down transiting through that area so we're getting data you know when we've had the first hits over the summer in this area we were we were quite you know we got that question and we said well no we don't really want to divert resources of chasing this thing because there's a there's bigger price down here now we've got validating data in the same area it's it's you know well there might actually be something there we're still having that question to ourselves i think it's still the same answer right the prize is still the bigger stuff down below right right and and that's what we're going for here but it's we're going to go through that area again i'm sure and let's see what we get in this it's a geological kind of curiosity but you know So September 21st, when we were at Beaver Creek, we had drill results in the main trend of mineralization coming down below the old mine.

14:29And I think the headline hole there was about 60, 62 grams over six meters. I mean, that is the prize. You know, our ability to get that type of result on a regular basis, quite regular basis, as we are drilling these extensions of mineralization going down. That's the focus.

14:47Trevor Hall: Do you feel that your market is kind of edging you to the same strategy that you just laid out, not necessarily take on more expiration risk, but really, I don't want to say low-hanging fruit, but really keeping that eyes on the prize with those high-grade hits below the old mine workings? Is that exactly where you want? And is that kind of what Ignico's expectations are as well? yeah i you know being very careful not to speak on behalf of the nico here and how they how they see this um you know um i think how we we're we're very much we're all we're all mining people uh in this company right so we sort of use the statistic that there's nine mines have been built uh from beginning to end by by board members on this company so there's a lot of gray here and we're not necessarily coming from an exploration culture we're all coming from a mine development culture so the the exploration then which has been so successful to brian over the last couple of years in particular and before that too um is really focused on where's the mine right and uh and so i think you could there's a genuine kind of sense of well and this is true of any deposit of this type, is this a narrower thing with more selective mining and a higher cutoff and a smaller mill where you're going for grades rather than tons?

16:21Or is there an opportunity here to bulk mine this thing with a lower cutoff and lower grade but more tons? And those are mining questions at this stage rather than geological questions, right? What's your access going to be? what's your development going to be, what's the continuity of things? One of the rationales for going underground with this underground program is to answer some of those questions, right? So I'd say we're not really interested as explorationists at this stage of chasing the geological curiosities, right? Even though they may give us spectacular results, we're interested in putting tons and ounces and future mining stops kind of on the page and building that out.

17:05Yeah.

17:06Trevor Hall: Yeah. Very good. You know, one last idea I had for you and I was, I think one of my big takeaways from sitting in that room in London with your presentation was obviously the story continues to evolve clearly and for the better. with this position that Agnico comes in with just literally the position next to Neron, is there a concern that Radisson becomes kind of this one trick pony type thing? Well, the natural acquirer is going to be Agnico. We'll just wait till Agnico maybe makes a move. But you do want to create some sort of tension within your market that you're not just a one direction. You have multiple paths, right?

17:51Trevor Hall: Where does that idea sit? with you guys right now, you know, a couple months after that strategic investment, and then obviously moving forward on the technical aspect of O 'Brien? Yeah, I think that is a question that many shareholders have. I'm not the only one. I think our answer to that is, you know, a project like O 'Brien has lots of options, right? The grade is good. It's getting bigger. It's in a great location. It's got a lot of existing infrastructure around it. So we feel like, you know, there are different paths that can develop here in the future. And I don't want to sort of, you know, talk hypotheticals and speculate too much on that question because I don't want to sort of lead people on.

18:52But if you are a project that's tied at the hip with a neighboring project and you have no other options, your grade's not high enough to be trucked anywhere else, you don't really work as a standalone man. You need the neighbor and there only is one neighbor. Then yes, you're in a difficult position, I think. And it's a buyer's market. it. I think if you have a viable standalone mine always, and every mining company, every junior mining company is always by default on that path, right? We are taking the ball down the field and building the mine until the day we're not, right? That's true of every single exploration and development junior, especially single asset company out there.

19:41So do you have a viable project on that basis? We certainly do. And so I push back to the on that notion that that there's there's there's no tension right and a lot of the tension is internal as well it's not necessarily external um so uh our focus here is knowing the value of our business which is and it has been for a while which is principally the exploration and the drilling um uh that drives ounces which drives value and again we have this unique situation and our playing field for exploration is so it's so it's it's so big because we can go down with with courage uh and then the underground program that's now being financed with um with the nico's investment is is a de-risking exercise and it's an important part of mining infrastructure that's going in but it's essentially a box checking de-risking exercise de-risking technical questions de-risking schedule it establishes a project development schedule because it's it it's something that has to go in so um uh let's see how this develops right i mean i and i think i uh when that question was asked in the room in uh in london and when you were there i I gave a similar answer, I hope.

21:07I think so. Yes, yes. Let's see how this developed.

21:13Trevor Hall: Absolutely. All right. Matt, thanks so much. Good to connect with you. Great conversation, as always. We'll be touching base here again before the end of the year. Obviously, more drill results to come, as always. Radisson Mining does trade on the Venture Exchange with RDS and on the OTCQX with RMRDF. Matt, have a great rest of your week. Talk to you again soon. Thanks, Trevor. The information presented should not be considered investment advice. Mining Stock Daily and its affiliates are not responsible for any loss arising from any investment decision in connection with the material presented herein.

21:47Trevor Hall: Please do your own research or speak with a licensed financial representative before making any investment decisions.