Categories: Precious Metals
Topics: Gold Stocks

Trident Resources (TSX-V: ROCK)(OTC: TRDTF) CEO Jonathan Weisblatt on Accelerating Winter Exploration Program with the Addition of a Third Drill Rig to the Contact Lake Gold Project in Northern Saskatchewan, Canada

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the CEO of the very popular and busy Trident Resources (TSX-V: ROCK)(OTC: TRDTF), Mr. Jon Weisblatt. Jon, it's great to have you on. I joked off-air that you are a six year in the making overnight success. But listen, let's be serious for a second. We have gold back up over 5,200. We have silver above 90. You just closed a nearly $19 million financing and added a third drill rig to Contact Lake. So Trident has received a lot of new eyeballs, and it's not a coincidence that you're hitting close to or new all-time highs on an almost weekly basis right now. There's good reason for that. So for those that are new to the company that are thinking maybe they missed the boat or the stock is run too much, can you make the case for why they're still compelling value and the major, major catalyst to come here in 2026 with Trident?

Jonathan Weisblatt: Yeah, for sure. And it's a pleasure to always be on with you, Gerardo. I enjoy the interviews always. So let me just put into perspective, let's talk about what we're busy doing, the catalysts going forward, and then always come back to the valuation and why investors haven't really missed much here. So we just closed a private placement, bought deal, private placement where we put almost $19 million into Treasury. Most of those are flow through dollars, which has to be spent. If your Canadian listeners are listening, they'll understand. Flow through is a tax incentivized structure, and it has to go towards exploration, which we are doing this year at the Contact Lake Gold Project. So we will complete anywhere between 30 and 40,000 meters of drilling this year at the Contact Lake Gold Project, which includes the past producing Contact Lake Cameco owned and operated mine from the 1990s, which we completed the first exploration last fall in almost 30 years.

And also nearby Preview deposits, which includes Preview North and Preview Southwest, where there is a 43-101 resource of about 800,000 ounces of open pit resource, one gram per tonne. Some of the 30 or 40,000 meters of drilling might also include, later in the program, North Lake, which is also in very close proximity to the old Cameco mine, which has an open pit 43-101 resource of 900,000 ounces at similar grade. It is always worth mentioning to your audience that there is no 43-101 resource at Contact Lake. The 2 million ounces on balance sheet for Trident Resources fully and entirely excludes Contact. So we will be very active in the winter. We have already commenced a 10,000-meter program, which we're working well through at this point. Some of that drilling, the 10,000 meters has been allocated on top of Contact Lake, where below it is a zone at contact called the BK-3 zone.

It was identified by Cameco. A mining soak was set up, an exploration drift was sent out to this very, very high grade zone. But Cameco closed its mine in 1998 before it eventually got out to the BK-3 under Contact Lake. We are aggressively hitting that target now, assuming that Mother Nature is going to cooperate with us, and you have thick enough ice to drill from that point. So we have three drill rigs up at site. Two are now focused on the lake drilling that BK-3 zone, which I just described to you. The third rig has been brought up to go out and do some more exploration work in and around the preview deposits. The third rig allows us to really allow for two rigs to be spinning 24 hours a day at Contact Lake. So that's the current program. The last thing I wanted to mention to your audience is 30 to 40,000 meters of total drilling in 2026 will be the largest exploration program in the La Ronge Gold Belt in almost 40 years since Cameco was very active back in those days. So it's quite a lot of catalysts.

Now, let's talk about the valuation proposition. The stock has done well since the private placement. It's now trading just below its 52-week high, its all time high of around $3.70. At the current share price, you have a market cap of slightly more than a hundred million. You have a cash on balance sheet of more than 30 million. You have an enterprise value of $70 million with 2 million ounces of gold. Investors are only paying $35 to $40 per ounce in the ground for 2 million ounces in the La Ronge Gold Belt, which is Tier 1 jurisdiction in the best mining province in Canada, which is Saskatchewan. I believe that investors are getting Contact Lake and our Knife Lake Copper Project for free in the share price today. So have they missed out, Gerardo? Absolutely not. There's a lot of upside left in the stock.

The last thing I will say is I've continued to pick away at the stock for my own accounts. We were blacked out for quite some time during the fall program. Insiders are now able to purchase shares and you can see my filings and I've been buying shares in and around these prices.

Gerardo Del Real: Listen, I think your background is perfectly suited for this market. I want to give kudos to you and the team because again, this is not a company that was put together in the last couple of months to take advantage of a bull market. This is a company that's been put together very methodically for five, six years during one of the worst bear markets that the natural resource sector has ever seen. And no coincidence that you're off to the races now in a better market and executing with the drill rig. Jon, anything to add to that?

Jonathan Weisblatt: No, I just wanted to say to you that coming through bear markets are the best times to build these companies. We put together the best team that we could. Our board is sizable. It's significant. We just appointed Tim Termuende to chairman of our board. Tim has 30 plus years as a geologist and a professional mining executive here in Canada. He is very well suited to do this job and this role. He's active on a day-to-day basis. Ross McElroy, Joe Gallucci, Jordan Trimble, myself, that is the board of directors for this team. And we've also put together a phenomenal day-to-day operational team. So this has been an over a six-year overnight success. The team's in place, the board's in place, we put a collection of assets together, that's in place and it's a really exciting time for Trident and its shareholders.

Gerardo Del Real: Couldn't agree more. Looking forward to having you back on. Thank you so much, Jon.

Jonathan Weisblatt: Thanks a lot, Gerardo.