Rupert Resources (RUP) - Europe's Most Significant Gold Discovery

Matt Gordon caught up once again with James Withall, CEO at Rupert Resources. Withall updated us on the company’s continued progress at their Northern Finland assets.

Company Overview

Rupert Resources is a Canadian gold exploration company seeking to find multi-million-ounce gold discoveries in Northern Finland. The company owns 451 km2 of highly prospective acreage along key structural trends in the Central Lapland Greenstone Belt. The company’s exploration acreage is close to a 100% owned and permitted mill. A 60,000-m exploratory drilling program is currently underway and numerous discoveries have already been made. The company program is fully funded through 2023.

Leadership Team

Withall has experience as both a gold equity fund manager and a geologist. He is assisted at the helm by five other managers: Gunnar Nilsson, Non-Executive Chairman; Jeffrey Karoly, CFO; Jukka Nieminen, Managing Director of Rupert Finland; Thomas Credland, Head of Corporate Development; and Dr. Charlotte Seabrook, Group Exploration Manager.  Several non-executive directors, including Michael Sutton, Michael Ouellette, Susan Milton, and George Ogilvie also serve the management team. Of particular note, Michael Sutton was credited with the discovery of the South Mine Complex at Kirkland Lake, Ontario, Canada.

Main Update Points

Rupert Resources has had a very active year of activities. Withall gave an update that touched on the following points:

• Progress over the last year
• The company’s continuing growth opportunity
• Delivery expectations going forward, and
• What the future may hold for the company

Ikkari in a Nutshell

The Ikkari deposit is a large greenstone-belt-hosted gold occurrence situated about 50 km southeast of Agnico Eagle’s Kittila Mine, which is the largest gold mine in Europe. Rupert Resources 2021 program at Ikkari has set out to drill over 60,000 m of exploratory penetrations. Many of the holes drilled so far have successfully penetrated high-grade ore. For example, two recent intercepts encountered gold-bearing zones of up to 8.9 g/t over 23 m and 4.4 g/t over 188 m. 

Rupert Resources’ Progress Over the Last Year

The company has developed a highly systematic exploration approach that they have diligently applied at Ikkari. That approach, along with setting out clear goals and the development of a new technique has propelled the company’s success over the last year. 

Withall told the market that they were going to find a gold deposit of a couple of million ounces worth $3Bn of NSR (Net Service Revenue). The Rupert Resources team has delivered on that promise. They now have made 6 discoveries that collectively contribute to the maiden resource. 

Is Rupert Resources Still a Growth Story?

With that type of success, some may wonder if Rupert Resources is still a growth story. Withall took exception to that notion, instead believing that the company’s story has changed for the better because of their success. The company has moved past the phase of having investors wonder if the next set of drilling results would be successful or not to instead having a bonafide maiden resource of sizable proportion.

The company still has quite a bit of drilling to go in the current campaign. This will likely result in an upside revision to the resource just announced at Ikkari. Then there’s the growth potential associated with continued exploration that the company is doing to locate and develop other Ikkari-like deposits within their acreage. In summary, Withall indicates that the whole Rupert Resources team is aligned, forward-looking and envisioning much more growth.

What’s Left To Deliver?

Currently, the market, and in particular the analyst community, is eagerly interested in Rupert Resources being able to advance Ikkari. So many exploration companies simply stay in the exploration phase and do not reach the prize of cash flow for shareholders. 

Next summer, Rupert Resources plans on delivering a PEA (Preliminary Economic Assessment). After that, they intend on quickly submitting a PFS (Pre-Feasibility Study) study followed by an EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) submission. All of this is designed to bring Ikkari into production as expeditiously as possible. 

Does Rupert Have Enough Cash?

These ambitious plans will take capital. Withall indicated that he has CAD $55M in the company treasury. That is sufficient to see Rupert Resources through their operating plan through 2023. 

Withall’s Biggest Concerns

Big plans almost always come with a big set of concerns. For Withall, one of these concerns is keeping up the momentum on the positive trajectory that the company now enjoys. Ensuring that distractions of any sort are minimized is important. The CEO wants to make it clear to investors that they are staying very focused on unlocking and maximizing the inherent value of their properties for investor benefit. 

What Does Rupert’s Future Look Like?

Withall indicated that, although people might wonder what will take place in the company’s future, he and the rest of the management team do not focus too much on that. Instead, they are focused on the present, which is to continue to build up a set of high-quality assets to create value for shareholders. He thinks in terms of the investor: They want to own a sleep-at-night, high-quality company that holds and expands its top-notch assets.

So, in a very real way, they are value creators. People want to buy and own value. If Rupert Resources keeps on demonstrating that they've got a quality product, they'll either be a great production company, or someone else will have a great-quality asset, if and when the shareholders want to take an offer from another company sometime in the future. 

Managing The Results

Defining a quality asset and delivering on promises are important in Rupert Resources’ business philosophy and ultimate success. As far as quality of assets, Ikkari is close to the surface, has low metallurgical risk, and is in a great jurisdiction in northern Finland, all of which reduce the risks of spending investors’ money in the region. So now, the focus is on delivering the cash flow from the asset: Not only a real return, but delivering a high-margin return. As Withall said: “It's about all the assets” and how Rupert Resources continues to generate value from them.

To find out more, go to the Rupert Resources Website