DRC Update

RNS Number : 5767X

Red Rock Resources plc

06 January 2022

 

Red Rock Resources PLC

("Red Rock" or the "Company")

DRC Update

6 January 2022

Red Rock Resources Plc, the natural resource development company focussed on gold, but with developing interests in copper, cobalt, and other minerals, announces an update on its activities in the Democratic Republic of Congo ("DRC"), following its last update of 16 November 2021 and the issue of the Company's Final Results on 29 December 2021.  

Highlights

Red Rock VUP Project (50.1%)

• The Company has obtained an order, Ordonnance No 437/BIL/12/2021 Portant Injonction de Payer (the "Payment Order") from the Commercial Court in Lubumbashi instructing VUP SA, the Company's partner in the joint venture, to pay $2,505,000 as a principal amount to Red Rock

• An Audience took place today in Lubumbashi at which the Company's claim for interest and damages of $11,000,000 was heard, with judgment to be given within eight days

• Red Rock continues to investigate additional remedies that may be available to it in the Congo and elsewhere

Red Rock Galaxy Project (Luanshimba) (80%)

· Results from the recent drilling programme have been received from the laboratories of ALS Global, are being analysed, and will be announced shortly

Red Rock Chairman Andrew Bell comments : "We continue discussion on some potential co-operations, after activity wound down over the Christmas and New Year period, and await the final interpretation and analysis of the recently received drill results from our promising copper-cobalt project near Lubumbashi.

On the legal side with the VUP joint venture, there has been no let-up in the pressure we are applying, with hearings on 22^nd December 2021 and 5^th January 2022. We advance step by step, rapidly, methodically, and on the best advice we can obtain. Every local judgement has been in our favour. We are glad to have received further vindication of our position in the Payment Order from the Court which we announce today, though as we note below there is a difference between getting a judgment and receiving funds.

There has been a loss of opportunity for profit here, for which our shareholders deserve to be amply compensated and others deserve to be punished." 

Background to VUP Developments

As announced on 6 March 2019 the Company through its local subsidiary had signed a joint venture agreement with a Congolese party, Vumilia Pendeza SA ("VUP") formalizing a joint venture over certain copper-cobalt assets ("the JV Assets") in Katanga and requiring the setting up of a joint venture company, and at the same time had signed the Statutes of the joint venture company. Red Rock owned 50.1% of the joint venture and of the designated joint venture company.

It recently came to the attention of the Company that its local partner VUP on 20 October 2021 served a Procès-Verbal de Saisie-Attribution de Créances (similar to a garnishee order in our system)(the "Order") on parties including Kamoto Copper Company SA, a subsidiary of Glencore PLC, claiming a principal sum of $15,000,000 in respect of a purported surrender by VUP of the JV Assets and some others, for $20,000,000 compensation, to La Générale des Carrières et Mines ("Gécamines"), a state-owned company in the Democratic Republic of Congo, under the terms of a purported Amicable Termination Transaction Protocol ("Protocol"). The Protocol was stated to have been signed on 4 December 2019, notarized on 29 September 2021, and come into enforceable form on 5 October 2021, and to have been entered into in the framework of discussions by Gécamines with a third party. 

Red Rock has been seeking advice in the Congo and in London on the various remedies available to it, and has obtained Orders against VUP and others in the Congo which protectively seize 50.1% of the $5,000,000 understood to have been paid so far, and which now instruct VUP to pay Red Rock $2,505,000.

Note : The period in which an appeal may be lodged against the Payment Order has not yet expired. Additionally, payment of the amount ordered to be paid depends both upon the ability of the Company to secure payment and the ability of VUP to pay.

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) 596/2014 as it forms part of UK domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 ("MAR"), and is disclosed in accordance with the Company's obligations under Article 17 of MAR.

For further information, please contact:

Andrew Bell 0207 747 9990  Chairman Red Rock Resources Plc

Scott Kaintz 0207 747 9990  Director Red Rock Resources Plc

Roland Cornish/ Rosalind Hill Abrahams 0207 628 3396 NOMAD Beaumont Cornish Limited

Jason Robertson 0207 374 2212    Broker First Equity Limited     

 

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