Expanded Gold Portfolio Secured in Ivory Coast

RNS Number : 5478C

IronRidge Resources Limited

18 April 2017

 

18 April 2017

Acquisition of Highly Prospective Gold License

Ivory Coast, West Africa

IronRidge Resources Limited (AIM: IRR, 'IronRidge' or the 'Company') is pleased to announce it has secured the right to acquire an additional highly prospective gold license application which complements and enhances the existing projects within Ivory Coast, West Africa.

HIGHLIGHTS:

Ø Access rights secured via Earn-In Agreement to an application covering 400km².

Ø Acquisition complements and enhances existing 3,110km² portfolio in Ivory Coast for a combined total 3,510km² land package over highly prospective geology.

Ø Strategic acquisition is adjacent to, and along strike from, a recently defined and growing third party 700Koz JORC compliant gold resource and complements the existing Vavoua and Gboguhue license applications in the west of the Country.

Ø Good access via extensive bitumen road networks.

Ø Ivory Coast represents an underexplored and highly prospective gold rich terrain within the prolific West African Birimian Greenstone sequence, with a diversified economy and pro-mining investment framework.

Reference to figures and tables relate to the version of this release on the Company's website (www.ironridgeresources.com.au) or visible in PDF format by clicking the link below:

http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/5478C_-2017-4-17.pdf

Commenting on the Company's latest progress, Vincent Mascolo, Chief Executive Officer of IronRidge, said:

"We are very excited by this strategic acquisition which further consolidates and enhances our extensive gold portfolio along prospective structures within the pro-mining jurisdiction of Ivory Coast.

We see enormous potential in the Ivory Coast and the portfolio presents a spectacular strategic opportunity that entails exploration potential along significant proven gold bearing structures within close proximity to infrastructure.

"This strengthens the Company's broader strategy of securing large project footprints within highly prospective yet underexplored terrains with proven gold potential in supportive jurisdictions."

New Acquisitions

The Company is continuing its growth strategy in the Ivory Coast and has secured via Earn-In Agreement, access rights to an additional application covering 400km² within the west of the Country.  This further enhances and complements the Company's existing Ivory Coast gold portfolio for a total combined 3,510km² of highly prospective Birimian geology.

The Vavoua South application in conjunction with the Vavoua and Gboguhue applications (announced 28^th March and 12^th April 2017 respectively), further consolidates the Company's ground position over this highly prospective and gold-bearing structure.

The Vavoua South application covers the potential northern strike extension of an adjacent and growing JORC compliant resource of 700Koz held by a third party in the west of the Country.

Previously announced reconnaissance due diligence sampling has highlighted anomalous gold results including 2.3g/t and 0.53g/t gold in auger drilling on the Vavoua project area to the north and 0.45g/t in reconnaissance soils on the Gboguhue project area to the south of the Vavoua South project area.

This is encouraging as the anomalous gold results occur along sub-parallel fault structures that straddle and are along strike from the 0.7Moz and growing Abujar gold resource held by a third party.  The combined license application areas provide the Company with access to over 70km strike of highly prospective fault structures within Birimian geology that occurs along strike from a known gold resource and multiple large scale artisanal workings.

Project Portfolio

The Company has secured via Earn-In Agreements, access rights to nine (9) licenses and applications covering a total of 3,510km² within the Ivory Coast, West Africa. The tenement portfolio covers major shear zones and associated second and third order structures along proven, gold bearing shears.

Four principal gold bearing structures have been targeted:

Ø Two significant splay structures off the Sassandra Shear Zone that effectively separates the older Archean Craton of the Leo Shield in Liberia from the younger intrusive and metasedimentary rocks of the West African Birimian Sequence to the east. Similar splay-off structures host the world-class Syama (7Moz) and Tongon (5Moz) gold mines to the north (Gboguhue, Vavoua, Vavoua South Projects).

Ø The southern extension of the hugely gold prolific Ahafo (23Moz) - Bibiani (7Moz) - Chirano (5Moz) structure into Ivory Coast (Bianouan Project).

Ø The southern extensions of the North-South striking Wa (2.2Moz) - Konkera (3.3Moz) gold-bearing structure (Bouna, Kineta North, Kineta and Marahui Projects).

Ø An area of more thickly preserved metasedimentary rocks and underlying granitic intrusives (Bodite Project).

All projects are well serviced, with an extensive bitumen road network, well established cellular network and good high-voltage transmission line network.

Commercial Terms of JVA

The Company has entered into the Joint Venture Agreement ("JVA") with Bluefin SARL ("BF"), whereby IronRidge can acquire up to 100% of the projects through staged earn-in arrangements, and following staged expenditure to Feasibility Study.  The BF asset will be transferred to a special purpose vehicle ("SPV") for the joint venture following which BF will be issued 30 per cent of the share capital of the SPV.  In the event that BF's shareholding becomes diluted below 10 per cent of the issued share capital of the SPV then it is entitled to retain a NSR of 2.5% of which 40% may be acquired by IronRidge for US$3million at any time.

The Board is delighted with the progress that the Company has made in 2017 and looks forward to keeping shareholders updated as further news becomes available.

For any further information please contact:

IronRidge Resources Limited
Vincent Mascolo (Chief Executive Officer)	Tel: [phone]
Nicholas Mather (Executive Chairman)	Tel: [phone]
SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP	Tel: [phone]
Nominated Adviser and Broker
Jeff Keating Yellow Jersey PR Limited Charles Goodwin Harriet Jackson	Tel: [phone]

Competent Person Statement:

Information in this report relating to the exploration results is based on data reviewed by Mr Nicholas Mather (B.Sc. Hons Geol.), the Chief Executive Officer of the Company. Mr Mather is a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy who has in excess of 25 years' experience in mineral exploration and is a Qualified Person under the AIM Rules. Mr Mather consents to the inclusion of the information in the form and context in which it appears.

Notes to Editors:

IronRidge Resources is an AIM listed mineral exploration company with frontier assets in both Australia and West Africa, with two province scale projects in Gabon, and promising and advanced titanium and bauxite projects in Queensland Australia. IronRidge's corporate strategy is to create and sustain shareholder value through the discovery of world-class and globally demanded commodities.

Australia

Monogorilby is prospective for province scale titanium and bauxite with an initial maiden resource of 54.9MT of premium DSO bauxite Monogorilby is located in central Queensland, within a short trucking distance of the rail system leading north to the Port of Bundaberg. It is also located within close proximity of the active Queensland Rail network heading south towards the Port of Brisbane.

May Queen is located in Central Queensland within IRRs wholly owned Monogorilby license package and is highly prospective for gold. Historic drilling completed during the 1980s intersected multiple high-grade gold intervals including 2m @ 73.4 g/t Au (including 1m at 145g/t), 4m @ 38.8g/t Au (at end of hole) and 3m @ 18.9g/t Au, over an approximate 100m strike hosting numerous parallel vein systems, open to the north-west and south-east.

Wholly owned Quaggy contains highly anomalous platinum, palladium, nickel, cobalt and copper exploration targets and is located in Central Queensland within a short trucking distance of the dormant rail system to the Port of Bundaberg. It is also located within close proximity of the active Queensland Rail network heading south towards the Port of Brisbane.

Gabon

Tchibanga is located in south-western Gabon, in the Nyanga Province, within 10-60km of the Atlantic coastline.  This project comprises two exploration licenses, Tchibanga and Tchibanga Nord, which cover a combined area of 3,396km² and include over 90km of prospective lithologies and the historic Mont Pele iron occurrence.

Belinga Sud is Located in the north east of Gabon in the Ogooue-Ivindo Province, approximately 400km east of the capital city of Libreville. IRR's licence lies between the main Belinga Iron Ore Deposit, believed to be one of the world's largest untapped reserves of iron ore with an estimated 1bt of iron ore at a grade >60% Fe, and the route of the Trans Gabonese railway, which currently carries manganese ore and timber from Franceville to the Port of Owendo in Libreville.

Chad

The Company entered into an agreement with Tekton Minerals Pte Ltd of Singapore concerning its portfolio covering 1,400km² of highly prospective gold and other mineral projects in Chad, Central Africa. Under the terms of the agreement, IronRidge currently owns 6% and will acquire a total of 60% of Tekton, including its projects and team, to advance the Dorothe, Echbara and Am Ouchar licenses, which host multiple, potentially nation-building gold projects. Initial trenching results at Dorothe, including 14.12g/t Au over 4m, 34.1g/t over 2m and 63.2g/t over 1m, have defined significant gold mineralised quartz veining over a confirmed 1km strike at an average of 2m and up to 5m true width across multiple stacked vein zones up to 200m wide with new hard-rock artisanal workings potentially extending strike to >3km.

Ghana

The Company entered into conditional joint venture arrangements with Obotan Minerals Limited, Merlink Resources Limited and Barari Developments Limited of Ghana, West Africa, securing the first access rights to acquire the historical Egyasimanku Hill spodumene rich lithium resource, estimated to be in the order of 1.48Mt at 1.67% Li₂O and surrounding tenements. The portfolio covers some 314km² with a further identified 20km strike of pegmatite vein swarms, tenure package is also highly prospective for tin, tantalum, niobium and gold which occur as accessory minerals within the pegmatites and host formations.

Ivory Coast

The Company entered into joint venture arrangements with Enchi Proci SA, Major Star, Gail Resources, Eburnea and Kestral Minerals of the Ivory Coast, West Africa; securing access rights to highly prospective gold mineralised structures and pegmatite occurrences covering a combined 3,510km² and 400km² area respectively. The projects are well located within access of an extensive bitumen road network and along strike from multi-million ounce gold projects and mines.

Corporate

IronRidge made its AIM debut in February 2015, successfully securing strategic alliances with three international companies; Assore Limited of South Africa, Sumitomo Corporation of Japan and DGR Global Limited of Australia. Assore is a high- grade iron, chrome and manganese mining specialist. Sumitomo Corporation is a global resources, mining marketing and trading conglomerate. DGR Global is a project generation and exploration specialist.

 

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