Lake Rebecca Gold Project Resource Upgrade

RNS Number : 2186W

Trident Royalties PLC.

22 April 2021

 

22 April 2021

Trident Royalties Plc

("Trident" or the "Company")

Royalty Portfolio Update: Lake Rebecca Gold Project Resource Upgrade

Trident Royalties Plc (AIM:TRR, FSX:5KV), the growth-focused mining royalty and streaming company, is pleased to note the announcement¹ by Apollo Consolidated ("Apollo") regarding a significant increase in Indicated Mineral Resources at the Lake Rebecca Gold Project ("Lake Rebecca" or the "Project"), in Western Australia. Trident holds a 1.5% NSR gold royalty² (the "Lake Rebecca Gold Royalty" or the "Royalty") over the entirety of the Project.

Apollo has issued a JORC (2012) compliant Mineral Resource Estimate ("MRE") update (dated 20 April 2021) that builds on the maiden JORC (2012) MRE³ announced by Apollo on 10th February 2020, providing a 50% increase in Indicated Mineral Resources to 815,000 ounces gold to a combined optimised and pit-constrained 1.105 Moz gold Mineral Resource. Resource drilling is still ongoing with future MRE increases expected.

Adam Davidson, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of Trident commented:

"We are delighted to highlight Apollo's announcement of a significant Mineral Resource upgrade for the Lake Rebecca Gold Project, over which Trident holds a 1.5% Net Smelter Royalty.

"As we reported on 14 January 2021, since completing the royalty acquisition on 29 October 2020, Apollo had announced some very encouraging infill and exploratory drilling results.  These have provided the basis for the project's first Mineral Resource Estimate update resulting in the total contained gold ounces increasing to 1.105Moz and, importantly, increasing the total Resource in the Indicated category to 815,000 oz. The increase to the Indicated category provides the basis for a potential +8-year mine life operation, with associated requisite approvals, licensing and study work being undertaken alongside additional high-priority exploration over the coming months.  With A$37.1M ¹ in cash and receivables on hand, Apollo remains well funded to aggressively advance Lake Rebecca.

"We look forward to following developments at the project as the resource and exploration drilling continues and technical studies ramp-up."

LAKE REBECCA PROJECT RESOURCE UPDATE SUMMARY

JORC Compliant MRE update is based on the results of infill and step-out reverse circulation ("RC") and diamond drilling completed during 2020 and covers the Project's Rebecca, Duchess and Duke deposits.

· Total combined in-pit Mineral Resources of 29.1 Mt @ 1.2g/t Au for 1.105 Moz gold (see Table 1), with 74% in the Indicated category, based on three deposits:

o  Rebecca: 20.4 Mt @ 1.3g/t Au for 840,000 oz Au (76% Indicated), including Indicated 640,000 oz @ 1.5g/t Au;

o  Duchess: 6.85Mt @ 0.9g/t Au for 195,000 oz Au (60% Indicated); and

o  Duke: 1.9Mt @ 1.1g/t Au for 65,000 oz Au (85% Indicated).

· Resource update provides scope for Apollo to consider a potential +8yr mining and processing operation as part of planned technical evaluation studies which include:

o  environmental studies (underway); metallurgical test-work and processing option analysis; tailings storage; preliminary mining engineering studies; preliminary hydrological studies; and licencing and permitting.

· Further MRE updates are expected in due course with more than 25,000m of drilling underway, including:

o  Rebecca: RC drilling in progress on footwall gold targets and emerging zones in the northern part of the deposit and infill RC drilling to bring additional gold zones into a Resource category; and diamond drilling due to commence targeting high-grade gold plunge zones below the optimised Rebecca pit-shell;

o  Duchess & Duke deposits: RC drilling in progress targeting strike and dip extensions to the mineralisation; and

o  Cleo: RC drilling is planned to enable the Cleo mineralisation to be modelled and quantified in a future MRE (existing identified mineralisation is yet to be included in the MRE).

Table 1: Lake Rebecca Gold Project updated JORC (2012) compliant Mineral Resource Estimate*, dated 20 April 2021

Deposit	Indicated			Inferred			Indicated & Inferred
	Tonnes	Au Grade (g/t)	Contained Gold (oz)	Tonnes	Au Grade (g/t)	Contained Gold (oz)	Tonnes	Au Grade (g/t)	Contained Gold (oz)
Rebecca	13,600,000	1.5	640,000	6,800,000	0.9	200,000	20,400,000	1.3	840,000
Duchess	4,150,000	0.9	125,000	2,700,000	0.8	75,000	6,850,000	0.9	195,000
Duke	1,450,000	1.1	55,000	400,000	1.1	15,000	1,900,000	1.1	65,000
Total	19,200,000	1.3	815,000	9,900,000	0.9	290,000
Total Indicated & Inferred Mineral Resource							29,100,000	1.2	1,105,000

* MRE based on 0.5g/t Au cut-off and constrained within a AUD$ 2,250/oz optimised pit-shell using the same parameters as the 2020 maiden MRE.

The technical details summarised in this announcement are based on technical information compiled by the Competent Persons set out in the Apollo announcement¹.

Royalty Information

Trident announced the completion of the Lake Rebecca Gold Royalty Acquisition (as defined below) on 29 October 2020.

On 24 September 2020, the Company announced that it had entered into a binding agreement to acquire an existing 1.5% Net Smelter Return ("NSR") gold royalty over tenement E28/1610 (the "Lake Rebecca Gold Royalty Acquisition"), which hosts the entirety of the million-ounce Lake Rebecca Gold Project, currently owned and operated by ASX-listed Apollo Consolidated in Western Australia. The Royalty was acquired for a total consideration of A$8,000,000 comprising A$7,000,000 in cash (approx. US$5,000,000 at the time of completion) and A$1,000,000 which was satisfied by the issue of 1,862,556 new ordinary shares of 1p each in Trident ("Ordinary Shares") at 29.39p per Ordinary Share. Trident announced the completion of the Lake Rebecca Gold Royalty Acquisition on 29 October 2020.

The royalty is payable on production from exploration licence E28/1610 which is currently pending conversion to a mining licence (M28/400, application date 2 December 2019), and covers the entirety of the Cleo, Duke, Duchess and Rebecca deposits which are collectively referred to as the "Lake Rebecca Gold Project".

Trident considers Lake Rebecca to be a key cornerstone asset for the company and is expected to underpin the precious metals' allocation in Trident's royalty portfolio.

Notes & References

All of the technical information in this release has been extracted from the publicly available source documents identified below, the reader is advised that the appropriate JORC tables and Competent Persons Statements may be found in those documents.

1  Source: Apollo Consolidated ASX announcement 20 April 2021

( https://asx.api.markitdigital.com/asx-research/1.0/file/2924-02365043-6A1029007?access_token=83ff96335c2d45a094df02a206a39ff4 )

2:   Trident's 1.5% Net-Smelter-Return ("NSR") Lake Rebecca Gold Royalty (completion announced 29 October 2020) is over tenement E28/1610 (currently being converted to M 28/400) which hosts the entirety of the million-ounce Lake Rebecca Gold Project which is currently owned and operated by ASX-listed Apollo Consolidated in Western Australia. The Project includes the constituent Rebecca, Duchess, Duke and Cleo deposits (all of which are covered by the Royalty).

3  February 2020 JORC (2012) compliant maiden Mineral Resource Estimate consisted Indicated + Inferred resource of 27.1Mt @ 1.2g/t Au for 1.035Moz Au, with 0.5g/t Au cut-off & A$2,250/oz gold price. ASX announcement 10 February 2020

( https://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20200210/pdf/44dyphpx3pl45r.pdf )

** Ends **

Contact details:

Trident Royalties Plc Adam Davidson	www.tridentroyalties.com [phone]
Grant Thornton (Nominated Adviser) Colin Aaronson / Samantha Harrison / Lukas Girzadas	www.grantthornton.co.uk [phone]
Tamesis Partners LLP (Financial Adviser and Joint Broker) Richard Greenfield	www.tamesispartners.com [phone]
Shard Capital Partners LLP (Joint Broker) Erik Woolgar / Isabella Pierre	www.shardcapital.com [phone]
St Brides Partners Ltd (Financial PR & IR) Susie Geliher / Catherine Leftley / Charlotte Hollinshead	www.stbridespartners.co.uk [phone]

About Trident

Trident is a growth-focused diversified mining royalty and streaming company, providing investors with exposure to a mix of base and precious metals, bulk materials (excluding thermal coal) and battery metals.

Key highlights of Trident's strategy include:

· Expanding on a royalty and streaming portfolio which broadly mirrors the commodity exposure of the global mining sector (excluding thermal coal) with a bias towards production or near-production assets, differentiating Trident from the majority of peers which are exclusively, or heavily weighted, to precious metals;

· Acquiring royalties and streams in resource-friendly jurisdictions worldwide, while most competitors have portfolios focused on North and South America;

· Targeting attractive small-to-mid size transactions which are often ignored in a sector dominated by large players;

· Active deal-sourcing which, in addition to writing new royalties and streams, will focus on the acquisition of assets held by natural sellers such as: closed-end funds, prospect generators, junior and mid-tier miners holding royalties as non-core assets, and counterparties seeking to monetise packages of royalties and streams which are otherwise undervalued by the market;  

· Maintaining a low-overhead model which is capable of supporting a larger scale business without a commensurate increase in operating costs; and

· Leveraging the experience of management, the board of directors, and Trident's adviser team, all of whom have deep industry connections and strong transactional experience across multiple commodities and jurisdictions.

The acquisition and aggregation of individual royalties and streams is expected to deliver strong returns for shareholders as assets are acquired on terms reflective of single asset risk compared with the lower risk profile of a diversified, larger scale portfolio. Further value is expected to be delivered by the introduction of conservative levels of leverage through debt. Once scale has been achieved, strong cash generation is expected to support an attractive dividend policy, providing investors with a desirable mix of inflation protection, growth and income.

Forward-looking Statements

This news release contains forward ‐ looking information. The statements are based on reasonable assumptions and expectations of management and Trident provides no assurance that actual events will meet management's expectations. In certain cases, forward ‐ looking information may be identified by such terms as "anticipates", "believes", "could", "estimates", "expects", "may", "shall", "will", or "would". Although Trident believes the expectations expressed in such forward ‐ looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected. Mining exploration and development is an inherently risky business. In addition, factors that could cause actual events to differ materially from the forward-looking information stated herein include any factors which affect decisions to pursue mineral exploration on the relevant property and the ultimate exercise of option rights, which may include changes in market conditions, changes in metal prices, general economic and political conditions, environmental risks, and community and non-governmental actions. Such factors will also affect whether Trident will ultimately receive the benefits anticipated pursuant to relevant agreements. This list is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect any of the forward ‐ looking statements. These and other factors should be considered carefully and readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information.

Third Party Information

As a royalty and streaming company, Trident often has limited, if any, access to non-public scientific and technical information in respect of the properties underlying its portfolio of royalties and investments, or such information is subject to confidentiality provisions. As such, in preparing this announcement, the Company often largely relies upon information provided by or the public disclosures of the owners and operators of the properties underlying its portfolio of royalties, as available at the date of this announcement.

 

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