REG - Sunrise Resources - AGM Chairman’s Statement

Sunrise ResourcesAnnouncement

17/02/2023 07:00

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RNS Number : 9272P  Sunrise Resources Plc  17 February 2023

17 February 2023

 

SUNRISE RESOURCES PLC

("Sunrise" or the "Company")

 

AGM Chairman's Statement

 

Sunrise Resources plc is pleased to provide the following Chairman's Statement
and project update ahead of its Annual General Meeting ("AGM"") to be held at
10.00am today, 17 February 2023.

 

Chairman's Statement

 

"It is my pleasure to Chair the Company's AGM later this morning and to
provide this update for shareholders. I will be giving a presentation on the
Company's projects at the AGM and this is now live on our website.

 

Since its discovery, the CS Natural Pozzolan-Perlite Project in Nevada, USA,
has been, and continues to be, the main focus for our resources. It is our
flagship project within a balanced portfolio of US projects and royalty
interests that seeks to mitigate risk from over exposure to any one single
project. We continue to engage with multiple interested parties who are
potential partners for the CS Project. 2022 also saw, with limited input of
our human and cash resources, the significant evolution of our Pioche
Sepiolite Project and our second natural pozzolan project at Hazen, both also
located in Nevada.

 

Your Board believes these three key projects now form a strong Nevada based
portfolio of industrial mineral project with solid fundamentals, each having
the potential to significantly enhance shareholder value. The US Government is
committed to carbon reductions strategies that, we believe, will inevitably
lead to an increase in price and demand for natural pozzolan.  Our CS and
Hazen projects are well placed to take full advantage of this and with the
added potential of the Pioche Project your Board believes that we have
enhanced our prospects for value accretion in 2023.

 

Strategy

 

In the immediate future we will be wholly focused on the continued development
of these key industrial mineral projects.  Our strategy remains to partner
with leaders in their respective industries who are already selling these same
minerals into industrial markets. This strategy has been effective at the
Pioche Project, where we are now working with world leading's sepiolite
producer, Tolsa S.A. It is moving forward at the Hazen Project where
commercial scale testwork is progressing; and remains the Company's primary
strategy at the more advanced CS Project.

 

Our experience shows that the cement and ready-mix companies are conservative.
Each has its own raw material formulas and needs to do their own detailed
tests on product suitability before committing to a new source of raw
material. However, once a partnership of offtake is struck, these
relationships tend to be long-term and so are sources of long-term regular
recurring cashflow, particularly when the material source is as large as the
Company's CS Natural Pozzolan Project.

 

All other routes to the creation of stakeholder value remain under ongoing
consideration. We are monitoring the progress at two natural pozzolan grinding
projects in Utah (Geofortis) and Arizona (Eco Material Technologies), where
dedicated pozzolan processing plants are now commissioned, to gauge the
success of a more capital intensive go-it-alone strategy.

 

The following update sets out some of the steps we are taking to ensure our
existing strategy is a success. We look forward to welcoming shareholders at
the AGM and to reporting on our progress throughout 2023."

 

 

CS Project, Nevada USA

 

The CS Project is fully permitted and shovel ready with a fully approved mine
plan for the extraction of a total of 14.5 million tons of pozzolan and 1.3
million tons of perlite at a rate of up to 500,000 tons per year. The
Company's permits continue indefinitely, subject to periodic, procedural
renewals.

 

As a guide to the value of natural pozzolan, the latest pricing information
available to the Company suggests fly ash, for which natural pozzolan is a
replacement, sells for c.US$100 delivered into Las Vegas and the cement price,
which natural pozzolan can partially replace, is currently around US$140/ton
and rising.

 

The Company is continuing to target discussions with the large integrated
cement and cement and ready-mix companies that could both grind the pozzolan
as a fly ash replacement or to make 1P (pozzolan) cement. We are also
targeting fly ash distributors who see natural pozzolan as a means to continue
their business at a time when coal fly ash supplies are threatened by the
closure of coal-fired power stations. We have also extended our discussions to
materials companies that supply (for example aggregates) to the concrete
industry, and to the producers of new-generation cements that are based on
natural pozzolans.

 

We have also commissioned a number of industry insiders to assist in this
process as this approach has worked very successfully for the Company in
bringing world leading sepiolite producer, Tolsa. S.A. into the Company's
Pioche Sepiolite Project.

 

A detailed market study has been commissioned for the cement and supplementary
cementitious industries in California and Nevada to update the preliminary
study we obtained some time ago. We expect this will help identify additional
opportunities for further development of the CS Project.

 

We are continuing our work to develop markets for perlite with an emphasis on
horticultural grade perlite. A number of companies have undertaken tests on
our raw perlite and expressed interest in buying material when commercially
available. Other companies have material ready for testing, are awaiting test
materials when next available or have recently completed testwork. In the
latter category is a large industrial consumer of finer grained, industrial
grade perlite which recently completed preliminary testwork and which has now
expressed interest in moving to larger scale tests.

 

The latest published price for raw perlite is $66/ton at the mine gate, an
average for all grades.

 

Hazen Natural Pozzolan

 

In October 2022 the Company announced a collaborative arrangement with an
existing processor of natural pozzolan for mining and test grinding of a
250-ton bulk sample. This programme is being carried out at no cost to
Sunrise.

 

The bulk sample was mined successfully and demonstrated that the Hazen
pozzolan is free digging and so amenable to low-cost mining. The bulk sample
is currently at the process plant awaiting test grinding when sufficient silo
space is available.

 

 

Pioche Sepiolite Project

 

The Pioche Project contains an extensive deposit of sepiolite, an industrial
clay that is rare in commercial deposits. All evaluation work is being solely
funded by Spanish company, Tolsa S.A., the world's largest producer of
sepiolite.

 

 

 

 

 

Tolsa holds an option to purchase the Pioche Project for US$1.25 million
payable by 28 December 2023 and Sunrise will retain a 3% royalty on net
turnover from any future production. Tolsa has recently staked a further 31
mining claims to more than double the size of the Pioche Project following a
successful trenching programme last year and is planning a resource definition
drilling programme this coming Spring.

 

 

 

Patrick Cheetham

Executive Chairman

 

 

 

 

Further information:

 

 Sunrise Resources plc                  Tel: +44 (0)1625 838 884

 Patrick Cheetham, Executive Chairman
                                        Tel: +44 (0)207 628 3396

 Beaumont Cornish Limited

 Nominated Adviser

 James Biddle/Roland Cornish
                                        Tel: +44 (0)207 469 0930

 Peterhouse Capital Limited

 Broker

 Lucy Williams/Duncan Vasey

Shares in the Company trade on AIM. EPIC: "SRES".

Website: www.sunriseresourcesplc.com

 

 

Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to
constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations
(EU) No. 596/2014 which  forms part of UK domestic law by virtue of the
European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 ('MAR'). Upon the publication of this
announcement via Regulatory Information Service ('RIS'), this inside
information is now considered to be in the public domain.

 

 

 

 

 

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