Central and West African Assets

Red Rock Resources plc

24 January 2024

 

Red Rock Resources PLC

("Red Rock" or the "Company")

Central and West African Assets

24 January 2024

Red Rock Resources Plc, ("Red Rock" or "the Company"), is a natural resource development company with interests in gold, copper, cobalt, lithium and other minerals principally in Africa and Australia.

This release is an update in relation to the Company's assets in Central and Western Africa.

Highlights:

o  Further news on the Company's arbitration award expected following the conclusion of elections in DRC

o  Contract renewal at Bilbale (Au) and license renewal at Boulon (Au) in Burkina Faso

o  Geochemical testing of Bilbale license and mapping of key zones has begun, with a view to semi-mechanised mining of alluvial areas and follow up drilling of hard rock targets

o  Promising rock chip results from mapped areas at Bilbale, including 14.7 g/t and 11.2 g/t Au

o  Development team arriving on site in Bilbale

o Recent grant of a second license in the group of four Au applications around Yamoussoukro creates critical mass for development/joint venture in Côte d'Ivoire  

o  Approaches by third parties in relation to Cote d'Ivoire licenses

Flexible response in Zimbabwe to volatility in lithium price and pre-holiday destocking in China, with first delivery to arrive at destination port at a date to be determined after the Chinese New Year holidays, but no earlier than end-February  Red Rock Chairman Andrew Bell comments: "We have made significant advances with grant or renewal now achieved at three gold licenses in West Africa, so that we currently have four licenses active, all of which are seen by us as of very high prospectivity. 

Activity to begin gold production has begun at Bilbale in Burkina Faso, guided by our local staff and a team of experts from South Africa, Zimbabwe and India.

In DRC, we are continuing to work to press for the release of the arbitration award, now that the election is over. We believe that the conclusion of this lengthy process is now near.  

Award of the first two licenses in Côte d'Ivoire has also taken up to two years, but our patience and persistence have been crowned with success there, as we continue to believe they will be in DRC. We are working actively on crystallising immediate added value to Red Rock in these licenses.

In Zimbabwe, our primary emphasis on trading to the end of the rainy season or later was a strategy designed to control risk and enable flexible and opportunistic response to price volatility. We do not believe lithium prices, currently below $1000/t CIF China for all grades of ore (before discounts and commissions), are likely to rise in the near future, but as we are able to take advantage of this environment, we are unconcerned and can focus on medium-term growth prospects. Deliveries into China will provisionally be timed for late February or March, not in the expectation of a sharp price rise, but because delivery before then is likely to involve demurrage (storage costs) and/or discounts due to the lack of demand as China goes into the Chinese New Year period with high stocks of both electric cars and lithium.

Gold should therefore be a better driver of cash flow progress in the near term, and fortunately we are well-positioned with gold projects in this region capable of near-term production.

The prospectivity of our licenses in Côte d'Ivoire is evidenced by the third party interest we are beginning to attract from potential buyers and partners. We plan a management visit to Yamoussoukro in mid-February." 

PROJECT	2024 UPDATE
Litigation and Arbitration - DRC	The Company's 100% owned subsidiary in the DRC obtained in 2022 an executory judgment for $2.5m (being 50.1% of $5m paid to local partner by a buyer). Arbitration hearings and negotiations have been held in Kinshasa in order to obtain 50.1% of the $15m still to be paid. A draft of the arbitration award has been received and awaits signature and release. This process was delayed during the election period which has now concluded with the re-election of President Felix Tshisekedi. An update will be provided as soon as possible.
Faso Minerals Ltd Gold: Boromo and Banfora greenstone belts, SW Burkina Faso	Faso Minerals Ltd (FML), through its subsidiary Faso Greenstone Resources SARL, holds 348 sq km of highly prospective ground, acquired from local holders in the SW of Burkina Faso at Bilbale and Boulon. Applications for other areas have been prepared. A 778m Reverse Circulation drill programme was carried out at Djikologo and the Bilbale Artisanal Area at Bilbale.  Results announced showed gold intersections in three of the four holes drilled in the first target, with three relatively high-grade intersections in the BilR22-03 drillhole, including 20m at 3.19 g/t gold from 22m depth. Gold mineralisation was intersected in two of the three holes at the Bilbale Artisanal Area. Current work includes detailed mapping of three out of ten identified target areas at Bilbale. The areas mapped total some 6 sq km (Djikologo, Koulagang and Tampoa), and 22 rock chip samples have now been taken at the first two of these, where outcrop was found. 12 of these samples contained gold (over 0.1 g/t) and the best 4 returned laboratory results at 2.49 g/t, 3.25 g/t, 11.2 g/t and 14.7 g/t. A team assembled by our associate Mahendran Samuel is preparing to arrive on site over the next two weeks to start implementation of a scalable trial mining programme of alluvial gold-bearing material. A ball mill has been ordered, and an auger drill and other mining plant will follow, and their delivery will determine the start date of operations.
LacGold Minerals Ltd Gold: greenstone belts in Côte d'Ivoire Subsidiary	LacGold Minerals Ltd (LGM), through its 100% subsidiary LacGold Resources SARLU, made initial applications for five prospective areas, screened from a long list, for gold exploration. Signed Décrets have now been issued granting the first two, totalling 745.67 sq km after adjustments, at Yamoussoukro and Djekanou. Official site inspection visits have been conducted to the next four applications by the Mining Department, and these are in progress: Tienko, Korhogo, Molonou and Kokoumbo. With Molonou and Kokoumbo, the Company took over existing interests of high prospectivity near or adjoining the city of Yamoussoukro.   http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/6841A_1-2024-1-23.pdf Fig 1: licenses around Yamoussoukro Two stages of sampling have been carried out in accessible areas along strike from known occurrences at the Yamoussoukro and Djekanou licenses. An initial rock chip sampling programme produced 50 samples, tested by bottle roll test and by Atomic Absorption Spectrometry. Results include 54.25 g/t Au at Yamoussoukro and 5.93 g/t, 2.65 g/t, 2.24 g/t and 1.16 g/t at Djekanou. The samples from Djekanou are located in the north of the Djekanou permit on sites of semi-industrial activities. The samples come from N-S oriented structures which crossed the Djekanou permit and the artisanal mining authorization. These zones were later confirmed as anomalous by soil sampling.  http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/6841A_2-2024-1-23.pdf Fig 2: Yamoussoukro: rock chips http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/6841A_3-2024-1-23.pdf Fig 3: Djekanou: rock chips The proximity to a number of important existing mines and works on neighbouring licenses held by Koulou Gold (to North) and Kobo Resources (to South) provide additional evidence of prospectivity. A further 80 termite mound samples and 38 rock chip samples have recently been collected and results await testing. The Company has received two approaches for sale or co-operation and has more general discussions with other companies active in the area. One company will be conducting some sampling and mapping at the Yamoussoukro license in mid-February with a view to further co-operation discussions.
Lithium - Zimbabwe Lithium: historical pegmatite areas in Zimbabwe c.50% owned	RRR, through African Lithium Resources (Private) Ltd (ALR), has been in a process with a local partner of assembling a lithium portfolio by purchase of old mining areas and by pegging of prospective areas with evidence of good grade lithium mineralisation. Sampling has been carried out over areas of interest. ALR has funded development to date from its own resources and by raising $320,000 of external funding. The first location fully permitted is ALR's Tin Hill property, 29 km North-West of Bikita in South-East Zimbabwe. During the course of 2023, there were a number of regulatory and practise changes in Zimbabwe to which RRR has adapted. RRR has begun exports of 3% plus lithium ore and has a further stockpile of royalty-paid material ready for export. To avoid storage and demurrage charges at a time when destocking is occurring in advance of the Chinese holidays and demand is absent, RRR plans to delay arrival of material at destination port to sometime after the Chinese New Year when demand resumes.
Elephant Oil Corporation	RRR has c397,873 shares in Elephant Oil Corporation, where a Form S-1/A and a presentation have been filed and are kept updated on the EDGAR website of the Securities and Exchange Commission under the stock code ELEP. The intention of Elephant continues to be to list on a North American Exchange. It had been expected that this would have taken place early in 2023, but clearly the process is taking longer and RRR will report further when it has further news.
Royalties	Royalties are held over the Zimbabwean, Ivory Coast, and Burkina Faso assets.

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

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

Bob Roberts 0203 8696081                                                        Broker Clear Capital Corporate Broking

The technical information in this announcement has been compiled by the Company's consultants in Côte d'Ivoire and Burkina Faso, and by Mr Ali Barro in London. M. Koffi Gbamele, who approves this release, is a Member of the E-SGA and an Associate of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM) and 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.

Beaumont Cornish Limited ("Beaumont Cornish") is the Company's Nominated Adviser and is authorised and regulated by the FCA. Beaumont Cornish's responsibilities as the Company's Nominated Adviser, including a responsibility to advise and guide the Company on its responsibilities under the AIM Rules for Companies and AIM Rules for Nominated Advisers, are owed solely to the London Stock Exchange. Beaumont Cornish is not acting for and will not be responsible to any other persons for providing protections afforded to customers of Beaumont Cornish nor for advising them in relation to the proposed arrangements described in this announcement or any matter referred to in it.

 

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