Summary of Gold Exposure

RNS Number : 4581S

Red Rock Resources plc

16 November 2021

 

Red Rock Resources PLC

("Red Rock" or the "Company")

Summary of Gold Exposure

16 November 2021

Red Rock Resources Plc, the natural resource development company with interests in gold, copper/cobalt, and other minerals, summarises the exposure to gold which runs through its portfolio.

Highlights

• A JORC Indicated and Inferred Resource of 15.13 Mt @ 1.49 g/t Au with contained metal content of 723 koz in greenstones in Western license, Kenya

• New exploration targets identified by recent work in Eastern license, Kenya

• Significant new target zone identified in Western license, Kenya

• A tailings deposit containing 68koz Au @ 1.7g/t Au in Kenya

• A gold royalty over the producing El Limon mine in Colombia

• 50.01% of Red Rock Australasia Pty Ltd, which is preparing to list its Victoria gold assets

• Royalties over the Company's gold interests

• A new gold exploration subsidiary in the greenstone belt of the Côte d'Ivoire

• A new gold exploration subsidiary in the greenstone belt of Burkina Faso

Diagram: Gold assets of Red Rock Resources PLC [INSERT FIGURE 1]

Red Rock Chairman Andrew Bell comments : "After reaching highs above $2000/oz in late Summer 2020, Gold has underperformed most other asset classes since, as it came back to consolidate around its breakout levels. There are now signs, with the better performance in the last month, that it is breaking this downtrend, in which case it may reach or exceed last year's highs in the next months.We have some confidence that fundamentals can support it at or around current levels.

Since the larger part of the Company's interests are in gold, this is an appropriate moment to set out Red Rock's gold exposure across its projects, noting that the Company's gold interests in the African Greenstone Belts have recently extended with the submission of five license applications in the Côte d'Ivoire and the setting up of an operational subsidiary in Burkina Faso.

Except in Australia, the projects are 100% beneficially owned by Red Rock.

In the course of my recent visit, the manager of our Côte d'Ivoire subsidiary revisited Djekanou with me and we have confirmed the prospectivity of this application area which we expect to be one of the first granted. As many as three of the applications are over ground we know well and where we can proceed to exploration with some confidence.

Our choices in Burkina Faso have also been carefully assessed. Our criterion for selection in both countries has been to ask ourselves the question: "would the initial selection of assets form an entity listable in its own right?"

The tenor of discoveries and new mines in West Africa has exceeded the global average, reflecting the immaturity of exploration as well as the gold endowment.

It is a great pleasure to us that, with Cluff no longer present, we are, as we return, the only listed British exploration company with a permanent presence in these countries. For so prospective a territory, this is truly extraordinary. We can operate with confidence because of the high standard of professional formation of the technocrats and Ministers with whom we deal, and the excellent local teams of geologists, including our London-based data manager, a Burkinabe born in Côte d'Ivoire. 

Elsewhere in Africa, we continue our drill programme and geophysics in Kenya, with the three aims of infilling to increase Resource grade, size, and category, and of defining Resource in new areas, and of identifying new targets. We are confident that we can do all three, including building Resource ounces in the areas of our Eastern license highlighted by our ground geophysics programmes. Our geophysics is more or less continuous now that we have our own magnetics and IP (induced polarisation) equipment.   

We continue to work on permitting the tailings project in Kenya and we monitor closely the progress of the operators of our former Colombian mine at El Limon in Antioquia.

Finally, the preparations for the IPO of our Australian assets located in the Victorian gold belt are continuing. As in West Africa, we used research to identify areas that could be picked up through new license applications, as this can be more cost-effective than purchase or farm-in. Having been fortunate in the timing of our initial applications in an area now in high demand, Covid-related measures in Victoria have slowed both grants and work since. The highly professional team on the ground in Australia have however used the extra time - that we would rather they had not had - this year to great effect in tracking old and forgotten mines and piecing together immediate drill targets that look prospective. As Victoria comes out of lockdowns activity by us and others will be increasing. We believe that we can find new mines in this nineteenth century gold rush territory and if we have the right management, enthusiasm, and money we shall do it quicker.

We remain more a gold company than anything else, and as gold rises again through $1850 an ounce, and hits new highs in some currencies, we want to be positioned to take advantage. That is what much of our recent work has been directed to. As our new gold subsidiaries, which we hope to fund independently and in due course list in their own right, are in Francophone Africa, we end with the words of Louis Pasteur, "le hasard ne favorise que les esprits préparés" - fortune favours the prepared mind. "

Further Information on Key Gold Assets

The table below sets out the current position in each of the territories in which we hold gold exploration or production interests. This material is as previously disclosed by Red Rock, and as material developments occur, they will be disclosed by new announcements. All licenses are 100% beneficially owned except where stated.

Country	Holding	Project	Notes
Australia	New Ballarat Gold Corporation PLC ("NBGC") Red Rock Australasia Pty Ltd ("RRAL") [Share exchange under way whereby Red Rock will own 50.01% of NBGC, which will own 100% of RRAL]	Victoria Gold Project. RRAL holdings comprise seven granted licenses totalling 848 sq km and six principal license applications totalling 1458 sq km. Three immediate drill targets have been identified and NBGC is being prepared for a 2021/2022 IPO.	Victoria Gold Province. One of world's largest orogenic gold provinces, with 13 mines that produced over 1m oz of gold. Active 1851 to c1900. Recent surge in exploration and current annual production c650,000 oz.
Burkina Faso	Faso Minerals Ltd ("FML") Faso Greenstone Resources SARL ("FGR") FML is 100% owned by Red Rock and owns 100% of FGR.	A number of highly prospective target areas have been identified and will be applied for upon lifting of a current short moratorium. Negotiations continue with the owners of two existing licenses known to be strongly mineralised that would meet Red Rock's criteria.	The West African Greenstone Belts extend from Ghana to Mali with the most substantial and least explored parts in Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso. The Northern and Eastern borderlands of Burkina Faso, historically safe, are now affected by radicalisation of the cross-border semi-nomadic tribal population of these areas. The Southern and Western greenstones are in secure areas.
Colombia	Royalty over El Limon Mine and Plant	Mine and surrounding area in Northern Antioquia.	3% NSR Royalty on Mine and Plant Production up to $2m; thereafter $1m payable at 1%.
Côte d'Ivoire	Lac Minerals Ltd ("LML") LacGold Resources SARL ("LGR") LML is 100% owned by Red Rock and owns 100% of LGR.	Five licenses covering 1907 sq km in the greenstones that meet Red Rock's criteria have been applied for. The Company hopes to have grant of the first two shortly. Near Yamassoukro, a 384.2 sq km license at Djekanou will upon grant be a high priority exploration target.	The largest portion of the West African Greenstone Belts lies in Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), which lies to the West of Ghana and South of Burkina Faso and Mali. Historically underexplored (the long-serving post-independence President did not favour mining), the country from a governance and geological perspective is one of the most prospective gold plays worldwide.
Kenya	Mid Migori Mining Ltd RRR Kenya Ltd	Two gold exploration licenses covering 245 sq km stretching West-East along the line of a greenstone belt are held. Upon restoration of the licenses in 2020, a new Mineral Resource Estimate (under JORC 2012) on the central area of the western license was commissioned from CSA, identifying a Resource of 723,000 oz at 1.49 g/t. This updated the JORC report by CSA in 2012 (1,192 oz at 1.26 g/t). Western license: an RC infill and step-out drilling programme is under way and two existing areas, one included in former Resource calculations, and both previously drilled, are being tested by ground geophysics for a follow up drill programme to bring them to Resource status. Eastern license: earlier drilling, geochemistry and mapping programmes could not be followed up until license restoration in late 2020, since when a rolling programme of large scale ground geophysics (magnetics, IP, and pole-dipole IP) has been undertaken and continues in preparation for drilling for an Inferred Resource. Tailings: the previously announced (but now non-compliant as under a previous version of JORC) 68,000 oz of gold at 1.7 g/t is being re-examined with further work on the EIA and metallurgy being commissioned, in parallel with discussions with the Council and community.	Containing in the South towards the Tanzanian border the northern extension of the Tanzanian greenstones, Kenya has been a neglected but now increasingly recognised gold province.

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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