Licence applications by Cote d'Ivoire subsidiary

RNS Number : 3782P

Red Rock Resources plc

18 October 2021

 

Red Rock Resources PLC

("Red Rock" or the "Company")

West African Gold Exploration

Key License Applications by Côte d'Ivoire Subsidiary

18 October 2021

Red Rock Resources Plc, the natural resource development company with interests in gold, copper/cobalt, and other minerals, announces that it has made applications for five exploration permits through a wholly owned Côte d'Ivoire subsidiary LacGold Resources SARLU ("LacGold").

Highlights

•Five license areas totalling 1,907.07 square km were selected based on a detailed and comprehensive screening and ranking of possible target areas;

• Inputs included all available historical and geological information for the country;

• Each application area is located on a known regional shear zones where gold mines are operating;

• Each application area has significant artisanal mining occurring within and around it;

Red Rock Chairman Andrew Bell comments : "Exploration of some of the largest parts of the West African Greenstone Belts, and particularly the Côte d'Ivoire, has lagged far behind Ghana and even Mali.

In partnership with M. Koffi Gbamele, a Côte d'Ivoire geologist with 30 years of gold experience including at Newcrest and at Taurus Gold, and with the invaluable assistance of our Côte d'Ivoire-born geologist and data manager in London, M. Ali Barro, Red Rock has returned to the country with fresh vigour and renewed determination. M. Gbamele has engaged in exploration through its different stages at well-known mines such as Bonikro, Dougbafla, Hiré, and Afema, has conducted near mine development, and has in addition substantial administration and community and Government relations experience. We are excited by the opportunity to work with him.

Following a detailed study, application has now been made for five areas with, we believe, the pedigree and potential for significant discoveries. The team's aim is to create and rapidly list a quality West African stand-alone independently financed gold play focussed on the Côte d'Ivoire ."

Further Information

Red Rock owns LacGold through a wholly owned UK subsidiary Lac Minerals Ltd.

The key areas applied for are:

1.  The Djekanou-Taabo project, located 148 Km North from Abidjan. The project is 21 km Northeast of the Agbaou Gold mine and 20 km East of the Bonikro, Dougbafla and Hiré gold mines. The Bonikro-Hiré projects sit on the Southern part of the Oumé-Fetékro Granite Greenstone Belts. The Djekanou-Taabo project is located between the Fetekro Greenstone Belt and the North-South Dimbokro faults.

Intrusive host rocks at Hiré and Bonikro gold mines have been dated at 2180+/- 6Ma and +/- 4Ma (U-Pb on Zircon), respectively. These plutonic bodies acted as favourable sites for fluid flow due to their brittle rheological characteristics.

The base formations of gneiss and volcano-sedimentary rocks were intruded by tonalite-trondhjemite-granodiorite (TTG) type plutonic rocks and undifferentiated granitoids. The Bonikro and Hiré gold mines are a part of this granodiorite with NE shear zones similar to the local NE shear zones seen at the Djekanou-Taabo project. The project covers an area of 384.21Km².

Regional soil sampling (on a 800m x100m grid) carried out in 2005 by a previous company, showed regional geochemical anomalies with:

• 1Km long up to 12 parts per billion surface gold ("ppb");

• 1.2Km long up to 12 ppb surface gold;

• Peak values returned of 1236 ppb.

3.5 kms to the North of the project, an area has been defined as a small-scale mining zone where intensive illegal and semi-industrial gold mines are targeting quartz veins hosted in diorite and granodiorite with a general strike of North-South. 

2.  The Yamoussoukro project is located 245 Km North of Abidjan, covering an area of approximately 399.98 km2. The project is roughly 10 kms Northwest of Yamoussoukro and parallel to the Bandama river "Kossou Lake". The project is 12 kms Northeast of the Yaouré gold mine and on the same Northeast trending shear zone. The Yaouré gold deposit is hosted by Palaeoproterozoic Birimian basaltic rocks with intrusions of granodiorite and lesser feldspar, quartz-feldspar and hornblende porphyry dykes.

All the three main groups of Northwest structures delineated in the Yaoure gold mine crosscut the Yamoussoukro project. 

The Yaouré project area lies within the Eastern half of the informally named Bouaflé Greenstone Belt in central Côte d'Ivoire. The belt is a NNE-trending assemblage of Palaeoproterozoic volcanic, sedimentary and intrusive rocks of the Birimian Supergroup. Rock types in the Yaouré district are, for the most part, mafic volcanic rocks with minor chert, turbiditic metasedimentary rocks and a fluvio-deltaic formation. The flysch-like turbiditic metasediments consist of sandstone to argillite with graphitic and conglomerate horizons. The fluvio-deltaic formation consists of sandstone, conglomerate, and argillite. The volcano-sedimentary rocks were intruded by tonalite-trondhjemite-granodiorite (TTG) type plutonic rocks and undifferentiated granitoids. Mafic to ultramafic complexes are also found in the Yaouré district.

Two gold occurrences and one alluvial gold occurrence are located on the concession.

3.  The Korhogo project is located 600Km from Abidjan, in the North of the country.  The project is 30km East of Korhogo town and sits on the same NNE Shear zone as the Nako Gold deposits. The permit application is between two sinistral shear zones with a NNE strike and covering an area of approximately 399.46km2. The Western area of the application reveals numerous gold occurrences.

Historical data around the application area shows regional geochemical anomalies open towards the Korhogo project. 

4.  The Nassian Project ("Nassian") consists of one exploration permit, covering an area of approximately 393.4km2. Nassian is in the northeast of Côte d'Ivoire, located in the Southern border of the Comoè National Park and approximately 475 km north of Abidjan. The application is 3 km North of the city of Nassian.

Geologically, Nassian lies entirely within the Tonalite-Trondhjemite-Granodiorite domain (TTG domain), between the Boromo-Batie Greenstone Belt in Burkina Faso crosscutting the Bouna and Bondoukou region, and the Tehini-Hounde Greenstone Belt to the West composed of porphyritic granodiorites, biotite granodiorite, and/or hornblende, metatrondhjenite, metatonalite, and undifferentiated metagranodiorite. Amphibolite enclaves are observed and also quartz veins, pegmatite veins and dolerite are abundant in the area. The general orientation of the geological formation is Northwest. All of these formations are crossed by large faults oriented NNW and N-S. The application is located at the southern extremities of the major faults on which Centamin made large discoveries 140 km to the NNE at Doropo (3.5 Moz). The geology consists of the same formation observed at Doropo Gold Project.

5.  The Tienko Project ("Tienko") consists of one exploration application, covering an area of approximately 329.96 km2. Tienko is located in the northwest of Côte d'Ivoire, at the Southern border of the Republic of Mali and approximately 851 km North of Abidjan. The application is 91 km North of the city of Odienné where there is an airport.

The project is located between the Siekerole Shear Zone and the Bannifin Shear Zone in Southern Mali and is a possible large splay off the Bannifin Shear Zone. This application is 50Km from the Marvel Gold deposit where 910 Koz have been discovered recently on the Tabakorole Gold project. Major gold projects nearby are: Yanfolila (1.8Moz), Kodieran (2.0Moz), Kalana (3.5 Moz). The Tabokorole Shear Zone trends NW and joins the NE-trending Bannifini major Shear Zone, the shear zone near which the Morila Gold Mine sits (7.5 Moz). In the application area, regional sinistral structures crosscut the paleoproterozoic formation (flysch-sedimentary). The Tienko application lies in the western part of the Tonalite-Trondhjemite-Granodiorite domain (TTG domain).

FIGURE ONE

Map: application locations and the main gold deposits in Côte d'Ivoire.

http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/3782P_1-2021-10-18.pdf

This technical information in this announcement has been compiled by the Company's geological adviser on Côte d'Ivoire, M. Koffi Gbamele, a Member of the E-SGA, and  has been reviewed by Mr Joseph Komu, a member of AusIMM and a Manager employed by the Red Rock group. Mr Komu is a member of a recognised professional organisation and has sufficient relevant experience to qualify as a qualified person as defined in the Guidance Note for Mining, Oil and Gas Companies published by AIM.

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.

Glossary

Amphibolite:  rocks, including hornblende, comprised of amphibole crystals formed from chain silicate tetrahedra.

Argillite:  fine-grained sedimentary rocks.

Diorite:   a coarse grained intrusive igneous rock, the product of slow cooling.

Fluvio-deltaic:  the characteristic pattern of a fluvial plain approaching a shoreline.

Flysch:   a sequence of sedimentary rock layers that progress from deep-water and turbidity flow deposits to shallow-water shales and sandstones.

Gneiss:   metamorphosed granite.

Granodiorite:   a coarse-grained intrusive igneous rock intermediate between diorite and granite.

Hornblende:   a group name for aluminous ultramafic rocks of generally dark appearance.

Mafic:   magnesium or iron-rich igneous rocks containing some silicates.

Paleoproterozoic: the period 2.5-1.6 Ga, the first Era of the Proterozoic Eon; period where the continents began to stabilise.

Rheology:  the science of the deformation of matter.

Sinistral:   where the left side of a fault or shear moves towards the observer.

Tonalite-trondhjemite-granodiorite rocks or TTG rocks:  intrusive rocks with typical granitic composition (quartz and feldspar) but containing only a small portion of potassium feldspar.

Turbidite:   sedimentary rock composed of layered particles that grade upward from coarser to finer sizes and so are thought to have originated from ocean currents.

Ultramafic:   metamorphosed mantle rocks with very low silica content.

For further information, please contact:

Andrew Bell 0207 747 9990  Chairman 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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