RBW featured in Junior Gold Report! Great article, Q&A interview, with David Johnston in the Junior Gold Report - received tonight. Nice coverage.
I noticed in the part about the graphite that Johnston says the company has discovered flake graphite outcrops ON BOTH of its claim blocks - this is new!
June 3, 2012 - From JuniorGoldReport.com
Interview with David W. Johnston, President, Rainbow Resources Inc.
Rainbow Resources Inc. is a newly-listed Canadian based junior exploration company focused on building shareholder wealth through aggressive exploration in two favorable and proven mining jurisdictions - the West Kootenays in southeast British Columbia (silver, gold and flake graphite), and Nevada where Rainbow's Jewel Ridge Gold-Silver Project is in the heart of a major producing district.
Junior Gold Report over the weekend interviewed David W. Johnston, President of Rainbow Resources Inc.
Q. David, you have positioned Rainbow as a leader in gold-silver exploration in the West Kootenays. This is not an area that is on most people's radar screens. Why the West Kootenays?
A. Kal, the West Kootenays in many ways is like a giant jewelry store with a lot of valuable stuff inside. This particular region has actually produced a large proportion of all the silver, lead and zinc ever mined in British Columbia, in addition to substantial quantities of gold and silver. A major geological feature is the Kootenay Arc, a 400-km-long curving belt of highly deformed sedimentary, volcanic and metamorphic rocks extending southeast from Revelstoke, south along Kootenay Lake and southeast across the U.S. boundary.
So this is a prolific area that has literally produced hundreds of mines, many of them small but some large ones as well - millions of ounces of gold and silver. What's really interesting is that you've had all this production historically but very little drilling. A lot of areas were high-graded by the miners of the day and never followed up on - we've got some properties just like that.
A number of factors have probably contributed to a lack of drilling in the West Kootenays over the years, but Rainbow is pushing hard right now and so are a handful of other companies who see major opportunities in this district. I think it's just a question of when - not if - a major discovery is made, and fortunately we're exploring a very prospective land package that has "discovery potential" written all over it.
Q. How did you first get interested in the West Kootenay region?
A. Good question. I was interested in mining some small placer claims a number of years ago and it was suggested to me to check out the West Kootenays. Being from Calgary, this wasn't too far away. As I was becoming familiar with the area, one thing led to another, and I got a tip on a very interesting property called the International that included some crown grants.
It wasn't easy but I was able to acquire the crown grants in 2006 and I staked a large area around them. I put this all into my private company, Braveheart Resources, raised some money, and we started some initial exploration and got a technical report completed on the property in 2007. The International was a significant high-grade silver discovery in British Columbia in the early 1900's but due to access issues and world events, it just didn't get developed. There's now easy access onto the property with elevations ranging from 600 to 2100 metres.
The extent of massive galena at the International, and the vein system that has been identified, tells me and some geologists who have studied it that we could have a significant silver deposit on our hands. We're getting ready to start drilling there and we'll be drilling into some known high-grade structures.
Should be very interesting.
Q. How did this all lead to Rainbow?
A. Braveheart and Rainbow actually came together last year, and Rainbow took Braveheart over in a share swap that was approved by the Venture Exchange last October. I met Jim Decker, who's also from Calgary and a Rainbow director. He's a mining engineer and knows his stuff. He loved what he saw with the International and our other landholdings, and putting everything into a public company made a lot of sense. So this was a game-changer for Rainbow and a second "birth" if you will for the company after it had initially gone public in January, 2011.
Q. As you know, the strength of a management team in running a company is extremely important. Tell us about Rainbow's leadership team and its philosophy.
A. You're exactly right, and that's the first thing - the management team - that investors need to look at when evaluating a junior resource company. Given what we've accomplished in just the last six months, during a challenging time in the markets, I believe that speaks volumes about the strength of our group.
Personally, I've been very active in the Calgary business community and charitable organizations for many years. I launched an insurance company, Capital Benefits Group, 25 years ago that remains successful today. For a brief period in my younger days, I was also a miner with Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting, and I'm currently a board member with the Chamber of Mines for eastern British Columbia. I've always enjoyed working with people and finding solutions to problems. That's what business - indeed life - is all about. Dealing with people and solving problems. If you wake up in the morning and don't have a problem to solve, you should be worried. I have some Scottish blood in me, so I'm always careful when it comes to spending money but I also understand that as a junior exploration company you have to be aggressive at times and you can't be afraid to take risks. My #1 goal for Rainbow is to build shareholder wealth, that's what we need to be focused on.
Brian Murray is our CEO, an accountant by trade, and he has many years of experience in the junior resource industry. Jim Decker was the original founder of Grande Cache Coal and we all know how that turned out - it was a great success story. Our other directors are Bob Libin, a good friend of mine who's a very well known and successful Calgary businessman. And Bruce Durham who's a very respected geologist. Moose Mountain Technical Services oversees our geological program - they are top-notch and operate in many parts of the world. We also have a superb group of prospectors who know the West Kootenay region inside-out. That's critical because they're the ones who will identify the potential new discoveries that our geologists can follow up on.
Last but certainly not least, we have a strong group of advisers who help us with our communications strategy and in raising money. Everyone involved in Rainbow brings his or her special skill-sets to the table, and we work very well together as a team.
Q. The market has been less than cooperative the past few months for junior resource companies. Does Rainbow
have enough funds going forward or will financing be required? If so, how much dilution can shareholders expect?
A. There's no question the markets have been challenging lately but it's not my job to predict what they're going to do. My job is to ensure that Rainbow does the right things on the ground, and in all areas, so that we develop a company that our shareholders can be proud of and prosper from financially. Ultimately, what we need to do is make an important discovery - and then we'll go from there.
Perhaps we can do some profitable small scale mining on our own, but a nice discovery that enables us to get taken out by a major is an obvious way to create shareholder wealth. Back in 2009, there was another little company exploring in the interior of British Columbia that was trading for less than 30 cents a share that made a big discovery in the Blackwater District and they got bought out by New Gold at around $10 a share. Of course I'm speaking of Richfield Ventures. There are many junior exploration success stories that have come out of British Columbia, and our goal is to write a new chapter in that book.
Our stock has performed very well this year, all things considered, and we were able to raise in excess of $1 million in February mostly through management, close associates and our strong Braveheart base. Investors like what we're doing and if we stay focused on making things work on the ground, we'll be in great shape.
Share structure is critical and we're fortunate that we have a tight share structure with this company, and very loyal shareholders. We have just 34 million shares outstanding, as of the end of May, and they're in pretty tight hands. Like any junior resource company, we'll have to do more financings but we'll always be mindful of our share structure and use our shareholders' money wisely.
With at least one of our properties, the Referendum, we see a great opportunity for a surface bulk sample that can actually generate some cash flow for us, help fund future exploration and keep dilution as minimal as possible.
Q.Besides the International Property, what are Rainbow's other key holdings in the West Kootenays?
A. Our Big Strike Project covers a total of nearly 13,000 hectares and includes 7 other properties in addition to the International.
Our focus this summer will be on three high-grade past producers that have never been previously drilled - the International, Gold Viking and Ottawa - as well as the Referendum Property. Drilling will start initially at the Gold Viking Property which is immediately adjacent to the Village of Slocan, about 70 km north of Nelson.
Some high-grade silver and gold was pulled out of Gold Viking in the early 1900's. Airborne surveys and geochemical work was really promising, and a geological contact trends across the central portion of the property where we'll be drilling.
Gold Viking is immediately adjacent to the Ottawa Property which produced some stunning silver grades in the 1900's. It was part of the Ottawa Mines where nearly 2 million ounces of silver came from at an average grade of 61.6 ounces per ton. Ottawa and Gold Viking share a lot of similar geological signatures. So it'll be very interesting to see what Gold Viking delivers up. We'll be doing a lot of prospecting at the Ottawa Property and perhaps some drilling as well.
Our other major focus this summer will be on the Referendum Property just south of Nelson. It has open-pit potential on the eastern side with a quartz tourmaline stockwork system, while on the western side of the property there's evidence of a potential copper-gold porphyry system.
The surface bulk sample we're looking at doing would be from the eastern side where a mini-bulk sample was quite successful in the 1980's with grades of 4.5 g/t Au and near 30 g/t Ag. Rainbow also has some flake graphite claims in the region.
Q.What can you tell us about flake graphite in the West Kootenays?
The flake graphite potential of the West Kootenays really underscores how this whole area is such a geological wonder. To the south and the west of our Big Strike Project, in the Slocan Valley, is what's called the Valhalla Metamorphic Complex.
Few people are aware of this because it's a private company that has it, but the Valhalla Complex hosts the only producing natural flake graphite mine in Western Canada. Eagle Graphite has what could be a world class deposit about 20 km to the west of our Gold Viking Property.
They haul that rock down to a processing plant near Slocan. The quality of the flake graphite is very high - flat, flaky flakes which demand a premium in the market - and Eagle Graphite has an off-take agreement to sell the product. And they plan on ramping up production.
Quite possibly, this whole area which stretches at least 30 km north south and about 20 km east-west could emerge as a world class flake graphite camp. The host rock conditions are ideal. Numerous flake graphite occurrences have been reported over a wide area, and Anglo-Swiss also has what could be a potential major deposit just to the south of Eagle Graphite's processing plant.
An area like this, with significant mountain-building events, things have been cooked up in a unique way. It's like a special furnace and you don't see geological conditions like this anywhere else in the country.
Rainbow quietly and strategically staked more than 40 square kilometres of highly prospective ground in the Valhalla Complex, so we believe we're uniquely positioned should this story develop as we believe it will. We have found graphitic outcrops on both of our claim blocks, which warrants additional prospecting and exploration.
Q. Some people say that graphite is just a "passing phase" like uranium and rare earth elements. Do u think graphite is here to stay in terms of a prudent investment, If so, why?
A. I would say it is, and many in the scientific community contend that graphite will revolutionize the world as we know it. The supply-demand relationship appears to be quite favourable going forward over the next several years, as graphite is being used in so many new ways, but of course China controls much of the market and what happens there economically and politically will dictate the price structure.
It's important to keep in mind that it's one thing to have a flake graphite deposit, it's quite another to actually put it into production and find a buyer. It's not a very liquid market and there's a lot of relationship building in terms of that. In our situation, we're very fortunate because of Eagle Graphite's presence and the fact they are probably going to be the only producer - or certainly the leading producer - in western North America for at least the next several years.
And they have a buyer for their product. If we were to make a significant flake graphite discovery, especially near Eagle's processing plant, we'd certainly have their attention.
Q.Rainbow recently acquired an option on a gold-silver property in Nevada. How important is the Jewel Ridge Property in your overall game plan?
We're very excited about Jewel Ridge, and what it also gives us is the ability to drill year-round. I visited the property myself with Bob Morris, our senior geologist, back in April, shortly after we optioned it. We're both extremely impressed with its potential.
Jewel Ridge is contiguous to Barrick's Ruby Hill Mine to the north and Timberline's advanced-stage Lookout Mountain Project to the south, right near Eureka. Mineralization at Jewel Ridge trends to the north toward the Ruby Hill Mine.
There are several former historic pits at Jewel Ridge, and we're going to follow the primary structure which runs north-south and drill for some really wide intercepts and volume. There's been some previous drilling at Jewel Ridge, but in some cases we believe the drilling was above the primary structure.
One really outstanding historical result was back in 2004 when Greencastle hit 2.1 g/t Au over 39.6 metres. We'll be following up on that hole, drilling underneath the pits and following the structure as far as we can toward the Ruby Hill Mine.
The structure is at least 3 kilometres long. So we see great potential for Jewel Ridge. We are right in between an operating mine and a very significant deposit which continues to grow. The Battle Mountain-Eureka Trend is certainly prolific, and we're very fortunate to have such a promising property there. Nevada is hot right now.
Q.Thanks, David, do you have anything further you would like to add?
A. First, thank you for your time and your interest, Kal. We've got a very busy summer ahead of us, no matter what the markets do, so my closing words to your readers are - keep following the Rainbow. I'd like to thank all of our loyal shareholders who have been so great these last few months.
I'm very optimistic that our hard work is going to pay off and that we're going to generate a lot of excitement with a new discovery somewhere, whether it's in the West Kootenays or Nevada.
Rainbow's shares are listed for trading on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol RBW.V. Rainbow currently has 33,923,163 common shares issued and outstanding.
For further information: President David W. Johnston - (403) 701-2781.
www.RainbowResourcesInc.com