Ridgeline Minerals – Stacking the Odds for 2025! $RDG
As part of last years CEO.CA Stock Research Contest, I wrote about Ridgeline Minerals – and why they were a company deserving of attention in 2024. Although the company finished the year relatively flat on a YOY basis, they made important progress that could easily be missed by the casual observer. This has set them up for a potentially game changer of a year in 2025 – with many shots on goal.
Before we get too far, let’s delve a bit into Ridgeline’s background, for those new to the story.
Ridgeline is what can be best described as a hybrid explorer, with all projects based in the top tier mining jurisdiction of Nevada. They seek the blue-sky upside of a 100% self-funded discovery, but are pragmatic enough to balance this with partner funded earn-ins where higher exploration risk and cost can be born by well-funded major partners. As Rick Rule like’s to say re: prospect generators – “There’s nothing I like more than a well-funded major vetting a project and company for me…putting their money where their mouth is by signing an earn-in.” The company has done very well in this regard and has attracted the likes of Nevada Gold Mines (Barrick, Newmont, Nevada JV) and South 32 (Major Australian Miner) as dance partners on three of their projects.
A major reason they have been able to do these deals IMO is their management team. CEO Chad Peters – a geologist who is very familiar with Nevada – having risen in the ranks at Premier Gold Mines (now I-80) – to VP Exploration for the US. Chad was involved in over 10 million ounces of gold discovery and learned deal making from Ewan Downie – who to his credit has several innovative JVs and asset swaps with NGM and others under his belt.
A small but mighty team, Chad is well supported by Mike Harp, VP Exploration. Mike notably led the North Dark Star Discovery for Gold Standard Ventures located in Ridgelines home state of Nevada. North Dark Star – even shares the same geology as $RDG ‘s brand new project… Atlas – but more to come on this shortly. The team is supported by a resourceful group of Geo’s and Duane Lo, Ridgeline’s CFO who also works for Entrée Resources – who has had considerable success as a partner on the giant Oyu Tolgoi copper mine in Mongolia. An experienced board of directors is anchored by some of the who’s who of Nevada Exploration including Mac Jackson, former VP at Gold Standard Ventures and ex Newmont as well as Lewis Teal also an alumni of Newmont, who started his career in the Carlin Trend and retired as Newmont’s group executive overseeing all South American exploration. All in all – Chad, Mike, Mac and Lewis – have 50+million ounces of gold discovery to their names. Not bad!
So we have the right model and the right team, but why this year?
Recap of 2024 Progress:
Let’s start by recapping the key events in 2024 that help to lay the foundation for 2025:
Partnerships
1) Selena: South 32 Earn-in – derisks and sets stage for more drilling.
Ridgeline achieved a major de-risking milestone at their Selena project when they signed a $20 million USD Earn-in with South 32 who can earn up to 80% on Ridgeline’s Selena CRD early stage discovery. Ridgeline also importantly stipulated that their 20% be free-carried through a non-dilutive debt facility provided by South32. Also important here is that Ridgeline will retain operatorship of the project for a 10% management fee. This will help to lower G&A and allow RDG to remain involved in the project in a meaningful way. South 32 showed their support early on by supporting a large project wide MT survey – that has helped to increase confidence for a 2025 maiden drill program.
2) Swift: NGM finally strikes high grade at Swift!
Swift, a gold project earn-in with NGM is the arguably the flagship in terms of partnered projects with a $30 million USD earn in structure – that sees NGM able to earn up to 70% and an extra 5% (development option) by securing Ridgeline’s 25% financing (effectively making it free carry). Swift is the farthest along project in terms of exploration – with over $8 million USD spent by NGM through the 3rd quarter of 2024. While there has been a good deal of smoke – in the form of long intervals of low-grade gold mineralization…the elusive high grade – has been just that…elusive. This is until the fall of last year – when NGM drilled 2.7 metres of 7 g/t gold including 1.1m of 10.4 g/t gold. While not a grand slam, it does show that the system is capable of carrying grades equivalent to the head grades of the large underground mines operating in the area (~7 g/t). Nevada Gold Mines is very methodical in how they work and so even with this hit, they will keep on with their predefined framework drilling – but it’s undeniable that they were excited with the results – having featured Swift prominently in their Quarterly update MD&A – exploration section.

3) Black Ridge: Laying the Ground Work for a maiden drill program.
Black Ridge lives in the shadow of Swift, a the smaller earn-in ($10 million USD) for Ridgeline with NGM. It has a similar structure to Swift – where Ridgeline can retain an effective 25% carried – if NGM hits all milestones and takes the final 5% development option. 2024 was a quieter year for Black Ridge on the news front – but that doesn’t mean it was unproductive. NGM did all the final ground and supporting work to support a maiden drill program in 2025 and Black Ridge sits directly on-trend of Newmont’s high-grade Fallon Discovery (1.3 Moz Au @ 11.3 g/t).
100% Ridgeline Owned Projects
4) Big Blue: All signs lead to drilling!
A large IP survey in 2024 has shown multiple high priority porphyry Cu-Au targets at both the high grade – past producing Delker Mine as well as at the Ohio target. Delker was a small but high grade past producing mine at >94 thousand pounds of copper at ~6%. Recent Ridgeline trenching has also yielded narrow intercepts of up to 15% copper. At Ohio – rock chips samples have shown up to 16 g/t gold and just under 4% copper. Multiple IP surveys, rock chips and trenching have all pointed to one thing – drilling in 2025. Targets will be tested at the Delker with success allowing the company to test the deeper Ohio porphyry target in future programs. Big Blue inaugural drilling is planned to begin in March and is garnering much enthusiasm from long investors and has the potential to make 2025 a very exciting year.
5) Atlas: A new but familiar project
In the fall of 2024 – RDG began to tease the market in a low key way - about an exciting new project being staked. Fast forward to January 2025 and Atlas was revealed as the latest project in the Ridgeline hopper. The project is 100% owned and royalty free, and importantly is hosted in the very same rock formation as VP, Mike Harp’s past discovery – North Dark Star. This project has been on Ridgelines watch list for some time – and so when it came free – they pounced. With outcropping gold grading up to 7.7 g/t at surface over a 3km footprint – this a an intriguing gold oxide target and unbelievably, has never had a drill hole to test it, until 2025. Gold oxides are highly conducive to open pit mining, and cost effective exploration – as they are typically a widely disseminated system – that can be tested with fences of shallower (and cheaper :) ) holes – think 100 metres and not 1000 metres like deeper Carlin systems.
Atlas is drill ready for 2025 – and can be tested cheaply at ~$250,000 for a small kick-off program. The risk to reward on Atlas seems favorable, given the low cost of the test. RDG’s CEO has said that success at Atlas would be a 100 grams /ton intercept ie 100 metres at 1 g/t or 50 metres at 2 g/t. He also mentioned that it is not an unrealistic expectation to achieve a hit like or approaching this in the inaugural program.
So what does this 2024 work mean for 2025?
5 Projects are tee'd up for further and inauguaral drill programs for 2025: Swift, Selena, Black Ridge (inaugural), Big Blue (inaugural), Atlas (inaugural) - see map for locations on the Battle Mountain and Carlin Trends.

1) Swift – partnered with NGM
NGM have yet to release a budget for 2025 – but $5 million USD or more doesn’t seem out of the question, for more drilling. 2025 looks like the best odds yet to be the year where NGM delivers a 10 – 20 metre wide hit at 7+ g/t, which is roughly what’s required to get more eyes on this story.
2) Selena – partnered with South 32
The maiden drill program by South 32 is a bit of a wildcard. It’s all tee’d up for some deeper drilling on Chincilla sulfide target. My guess is ~$ 3-4 million USD on an initial program.
3) Black Ridge – partnered with NGM
The maiden program at Black Ridge will be smaller than Swift for sure, but you can’t get much for less than $2 million USD – so I’d bank on at least that for a small program.
4) Big Blue – RDG 100%
Big Blue is undoubtably Ridgelines new flagship in their 100% stable. This program will require about $1 million USD. Medium to long intercepts of high grade copper aren’t out of the question as an expectation on a discovery hole. This one could get exciting fast – think Hercules exciting.
5) Altas – RDG 100%
This late addition to the RDG stable – is a bit of a wildcard, but one with favorable upside / downside. The project was cheap to stake and will be cheap to test – at $250,000 USD. Remember that this deposit sits in host rocks that are very much VP Ex Mike Harp’s forte. If they hit on any one of these handful of holes – it will be exciting to see the follow-up.
All in all 2025 is stacked with drilling throughout – for Ridgeline and it’s partners
Chronologically here is how the 5 Drill programs for 2025 look to be timed:
Big Blue –Ridgeline 100% high grade & porphyry copper drilling: Will start in March 2025 – with results towards June.
Atlas – Ridgeline 100% gold oxide drilling: Drilling just after Big Blue program with results in July or August.
Swift – NGM Earn in high Grade gold Drilling: Targeting high interval, High grade gold. Drilling to begin in Q2 with results expected in the second half of 2025
Selena – South 32 Earn in - CRD Drilling:
Drilling likely in late H1 2025 – with results through the end of 2025.
Black Ridge - NGM Earn in high Grade gold Drilling: Drilling likely in H2 2025 – with results in late 2025 to early 2026.
So What?
What happens if an RDG project hits on a 100% RDG funded project or even a partnered one?
Kenorland Minerals $KLD – is a great recent analogue to Ridgeline. Kenorland had a 20% interest in the Frotet project that is was advancing with earn-in partner Sumitomo. As it became evident that the discovery phase was ending and that things would not become any cheaper on a pro-rata basis for definition drilling - $KLD was able to negotiate a 4% NSR (with 1% 10+ million buy back) in exchange for its 20% interest. The company’s stock has also doubled – to ~ $100 million CAD over the past year. Other minority interest success stories have included Mariana Resources – who’s stock price > 5X’d after the Timok discovery in Serbia – where they held 30% interest. A favorite of the author was the Abitibi Royalties 30% JV – which was subsequently converted to a royalty – and ultimately led to a buy out at > $28 a share.


Financing Update: At the time of writing, the company is in the process of closing a $3,500,000 million dollar which at about a week in was upsized by 20% to $4,200,000. The raise will be used to fund Ridgeline’s 100% projects – significantly the inaugural drill programs at Big Blue and Atlas. The financing has demonstrated the strength of the team in raising capital and the markets bullish outlook for RDG and its projects in 2025. On news of the upsizing – the stock traded ~7x the average volume while treading water well at the 0.15 mark.
All in all – it’s looking to be a very exciting year for Ridgeline Minerals. If even one of the holes at any of the 5 programs hits – things should get exciting and quickly. Although I was conservative with estimates above, Ridgeline has said that it could easily see its entire market cap of $15 million CAD – expended across the 5 programs (with just a fraction of that where Ridgeline is on the hook for funding). This is a lot shots on net for a sub $20 million dollar company. The company continues to do things right, with an eye to limit dilution – and the author will not be disappointed if they continue to partner projects that become unwieldy from a capital perspective. Ridgeline’s hybrid model seems to be humming on all cylinders and primed for success at one or more of the 5 projects where drilling is planned for 2025.
Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this article please feel free to like it and follow me at: @CDNResourceInvestor on CEO.CA and on X
All the best in your investing journey!
@CDNResourceInvestor
Further Coverage on Ridgeline:
Resource Talks host Antonio hosts regular updates with Chad, there is a Ridgeline playlist and here is the most recent
update speaking about Atlas and 2025:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0vuSb9tCY0&list=PLUxgfzcPuWKsXYjKuxHHspsKxUkTqKZl6&index=9
Val Pal is an equity research company out of Europe who do a great job on long form company updates. See RDG's latest
update here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RShpMU7Ir7Q
@CEOTechnician and @AllStreetsWolf are two good follows for Ridgline when it comes to X (Twitter):
Mining Stock Daily is a great junior mining focused podcast. They feature Ridgeline news and periodic updates with the company. Here is a link to their update on Swift drilling sucess in November 2024:
https://www.miningstockdaily.com/episodes/morning-briefing-new-discoveries-made-at-ridgeline-minerals-swift-project-and-founders-metals-lower-antino
Sedar + is a great source to follow insider share / option transactions across public companies:
https://www.sedarplus.ca/csa-party/viewInstance/view.html?id=0c11f8b7998bcd969d21306e8d10f8457514e6b9dfd33487&_timestamp=4902618547816767
Companies Mentioned:
$RDG $KLD $ABX $NGT $RZZ $MARL $IAU $GSV
I am long the company and own shares of Ridgeline Minerals. This should not be seen as investment advice. Everyone’s financial situation and risk appetite is different and so doing your own due diligence is of the utmost importance. This article is provided for entertainment purposes only.