John de Jong, President, CEO and Director of Rogue Resources, discusses the Company’s exploration plans at its flagship project, the Lac de la Grosse Femelle silica project in Quebec, as well as plans for the Langmuir nickel and Radio Hill iron ore projects located in close proximity to Timmins, Ontario.

 
In a challenging junior resource industry, Rogue believes that its silica project holds the opportunity for the greatest market potential for return, given its capacity for near-term production and cost outlay required to bring the deposit into production. In addition, the construction of a silicon metal plant nearby by one of the world's largest silicon metal producers, Grupo FerroAtlantica, also provides a great foundational point to launch the Lac de la Grosse Femelle silica project.

 
SCMC: What is Rogue’s strategy for the next 12 months? What milestones are you aiming to achieve and what is the timing like?

 
JdJ: Our primary focus will be on advancing the Lac de la Grosse Femelle (“Femelle”) Silica Project located east of Quebec City. We envision this as an open pit mining operation, and hope to be at a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) stage early in the first quarter of 2016. We are also working, in a lesser capacity, on our Langmuir Nickel Project and Radio Hill Iron Ore Project, both advanced stage projects located near Timmins, Ontario.

 
SCMC: You have a portfolio of projects spanning across a diverse range of commodities. Which of these projects do you find the most compelling? Does one stand out as a potential flagship?

 
JdJ: Definitely our silica asset, especially after the results we received late in 2014 after initial sampling. Our Langmuir nickel and Radio Hill iron ore projects are well advanced, near Timmins and its infrastructure, as well as being easily accessible by road. The Redstone nickel mill, adjacent to our Langmuir project, reopened recently, which I believe increases its desirability if we were to option the property or sell it. We recently terminated our agreement on the East-West gold project located near Val d’Or as we didn’t see it being able to create near-term value for the shareholder. Taking all of this in consideration, we view our Femelle property as our flagship property going forward in 2015.
 
SCMC: In mid-2014, Rogue announced the acquisition of the Femelle property. What initially attracted your interest to this asset?
 

JdJ: The markets are telling us that nickel and iron are commodities are likely to take more time to cycle back into favour. Gold prices continue to fluctuate and are not expected to rise significantly in the next while. A significant consideration in moving the Company to silica was the joint announcement in June 2014 by the Quebec government and FerroAtlantica, one of the world’s largest silicon metal producers, of their investment to build a $382 million silicon metal plant at Port Cartier, Quebec. I was aware that analysts were predicting a lightening of supply corresponding with rise in silicon prices, which led me to start looking for a high grade silica deposit in Quebec located somewhere in the vicinity of Port Cartier. The Femelle property fit the bill and adding to its attraction was that its quartzite units are located on strike to the quartzite units found on the adjacent property, Mine Sitec, a private silica mine that has been in operation for the past 50 years.

 
SCMC: Has the Femelle property been explored historically? If so, how much work was done, and for which minerals was the property explored?

 
JdJ: All of the previous work is related to the quartzite units on the property. The Ministry did some preliminary geological work in 1969 and 1975, GEX Silicium Limited in 1976, SOQUEM in 1980 and Tremblay, a prospector in 1999. The best sampling was done by GEX in whose grab sample assays returned up to 99.5% SiO2 which are consistent with what we found. No efforts were made by anyone that I can see to validate the strike length, depth or width of the two quartzite units found on the property.

 
SCMC: What are your plans for the Femelle property in 2015? What are your exploration plans and your budget exploration plans?
 

JdJ: We are committed to a budget of $1.9 million specifically for this project in 2015 and have recently conducted an airborne mag survey which will be complimented by an EM and radiometric survey planned for Q2. We have already organized our line cutting crews and what our ground geophysical survey work will entail. Outcrop stripping, trenching, detailed mapping and channel sampling will take place as soon as we can get on the ground early in Q2. We will follow up with lab analysis and if everything goes according to plan, we may be ready for drilling in Q3. Our priority is to determine the size, grade and purity of the quartzite units. On site, we clearly saw the “G” quartzite occurrence with an observable strike length at minimum 1.1 kilometres. It has widths of approximately 250 metres in places and is known to reach depths of 275 metres in other parts of the “G” quartzite units. We are committed to gettng this project moving as quickly as possible.

 
Eddy Canova, our Senior Vice President, has already begun the community consultation process, visiting the site with contractors who will be carrying out our ground geophysical surveys, and meeting with ministry officials at the local and provincial levels. We have contracted out our permitting and environmental work to GFE Forestry and Environment consultants and they have already been on site several times. Their involvement will greatly assist us in shorting up the time it takes to get our project underway.

 
SCMC: When are you planning to complete a PEA for Femelle property, and what work is required?
 

JdJ: Our plan is to hit the road running on the site as soon as possible and have all of our permitting and contractors in place to avoid delays. I hope to have our resource estimate completed by the end of the fourth quarter this year and our PEA early in 2016. A big determining factor as to timing may be whether this project gets a quarry or a mining designation. This will likely be determined as we advance the project.

 
SCMC: Can you give us an overview of the silica market? What do the supply and demand sides look like, what is the pricing like for silica products, and who are the major players?...

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