REG - Red Rock Resources - Central and West African Assets
24/01/2024 07:15
For best results when printing this announcement, please click on link below:
http://newsfile.refinitiv.com/getnewsfile/v1/story?guid=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20240124:nRSX6841Aa&default-theme=true
RNS Number : 6841A 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 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.
Gold: Boromo and Banfora greenstone belts, SW Burkina Faso
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 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
Gold: greenstone belts in Côte d'Ivoire Djekanou.
Subsidiary 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
(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
(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
(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 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.
Lithium: historical pegmatite areas in Zimbabwe
Sampling has been carried out over areas of interest.
c.50% owned
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.
This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact
rns@lseg.com (mailto:rns@lseg.com)
or visit
www.rns.com (http://www.rns.com/)
.
RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services. For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange use the personal data you provide us, please see our
Privacy Policy (https://www.lseg.com/privacy-and-cookie-policy)
. END MSCEAEFDAFXLEAARecent news on Red Rock Resources
See all newsREG - AIM - AIM Notice - 25/04/2024
AnnouncementREG - Red Rock Resources - Issue of Equity, Directors' Dealings and TVR
AnnouncementREG - Red Rock Resources - Issue of Equity
AnnouncementRCS - Red Rock Resources - DRC and Gold Assets Update
AnnouncementREG - Red Rock Resources - Half-year Report
Announcement