Trading Statement

RNS Number : 6631D

Eastinco Mining and Exploration PLC

30 October 2020

 

30 October 2020

New Appointment & Trading statement

Eastinco Mining and Exploration plc ("EME" or the "Company") announces a new appointment and its trading statement for the quarter ended 30 September 2020.

The Company is pleased to announce that Mr. Simon Rollason has been named as the Chief Executive Officer ("CEO"), effective from the 2^nd November, 2020.  Mr. Charles Bray, who has been acting CEO as well as Executive Chairman will continue as Executive Chairman.  Mr Rollason has been involved as a part-time consultant for the Company since November 2019 and has made significant contributions to the Company's progress with several visits to both the Musasa and Huye sites in Rwanda. The operational team of Eastinco Limited in Rwanda will report directly to Mr. Rollason.  Mr Rollason will be joining the Board of EME following standard due diligence enquiries.

Mr Rollason has 30 years of international exploration and mining experience, having worked on a wide range of commodities and geological terranes, developing & building projects and companies. He completed a BSc (Hons) degree in geology from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. He has broad corporate exposure ranging from multi-nationals to junior and start-up companies, with a strong operational background in African countries and within the CIS. He has operated in both open pit and underground mining environments, managed surface and underground exploration on greenfield to brownfield projects and producing assets.

"Simon is the right leader joining at the right time for EME," said Charles Bray, Executive Chairman.  Simon's extensive mining experience in operations and as a senior manager and director for multiple London listed mining companies is invaluable and timely for the start of our operations at the Musasa mine site in Rwanda. We believe that his strong leadership experience will help our subsidiary, Eastinco Limited make the shift from a development to a fully operational surface mining operation."

"I am very excited to be joining the EME team," said Simon Rollason, "The Company is at the point of transitioning from a project developer into a producer, with ambitions to expand the portfolio, initially in Rwanda, and potentially further afield in the near- to medium-term. The attractive business model of low cost-low capex, and early revenues presents a number of entry points within the local region, which will bring positive returns for all stakeholders."

During the quarter under review, and since, at the EME's Musasa (Kuaka) mine in Western Rwanda the commissioning of the gravity separation wash plant continues with the installation of the roofing, security fencing and upgrades to the water pumping systems and collection/settling ponds. The overburden and vegetation cover is being removed from the primary mineralisation, with the processing of this material to commence on schedule at the start of November. We anticipate that the processing of this primary, pegmatite-hosted mineralisation will require additional changes or optimisation to the wash plant processing systems, as it has different characteristic to the tailings material run to date.  Other key points occurring over the quarter:

· Sample prep laboratory equipment has arrived  and is being utilised on site;

· A larger capacity water pump, offering significant redundancy and extended processing times has been ordered and due to arrive by year end;

· Land permissions for field exploration work were received for the Huye joint-venture exploration site and will commence in November.

The Company presently has available cash and cash equivalents of approximately $390,000.  Operations are anticipated to run at 30-50% of capacity over November and a similar lower capacity in December due to the holiday period.  As a result of the COVID lockdowns and travel restrictions we are enforcing holiday leave for certain key employees who have been locked down on site and had little to no leave. We anticipate full scale operations to only begin following the return of employees from holidays in January 2021. 

The Directors take responsibility for this announcement.

Enquiries:

For further information, please visit http://www.eastinco.com/ or contact:

Eastinco Mining & Exploration Plc:

Charles Bray, Executive Chairman - [e-mail]

Mike Staten, Executive Director - [e-mail]

AQSE Growth Market Corporate Adviser:

Alfred Henry Corporate Finance Limited

Nick Michaels and Jon Isaacs

www.alfredhenry.com

Tel: [phone]

 

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