Drilling begins at Historic Berringa Gold Mine
Source: RNS
Red Rock Resources PLC
("Red Rock" or the "Company")
Drilling Begins at Historic Berringa Gold Mine
13 December 2022
Red Rock Resources PLC (LON:RRR), a natural resource development company with interests in gold and base metals, principally in Africa and Australia, announces an update in relation to the exploration programmes being carried out by joint venture subsidiary New Ballarat Gold Corporation plc ("JV" or "NBGC") in the Victoria Goldfields of Australia. Exploration is carried out by Red Rock Australasia Pty Ltd ("RRAL"), the 100% owned Australian operating subsidiary of NBGC.
Further to the announcement of the acquisition of the Berringa Gold Mine on 22 September 2022, Red Rock announces that diamond drilling has begun at the historic Berringa Gold Mine ("Berringa" or the "Project"), near Ballarat in the Victoria Goldfields.
HIGHLIGHTS:
§ Diamond drill rig has been mobilised to site and drilling has commenced at the historic Berringa former high-grade producing gold mine in the Victoria Goldfields.
§ Planned 1,000 metres of diamond drilling with an estimated 5 drill holes into 3 priority targets to test for the extension of previously mined gold mineralisation.
§ Expedited assay testing arrangements in place with batch sampling process expected to deliver first assay results in early 2023.
§ A video showing the planned drill programme may be viewed through the following link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=825WYdDVdyQ
The cost of the drill programme to NBGC is estimated at approximately AUD 350,000.
Red Rock Chairman Andrew Bell comments:
"We have now begun our diamond drilling campaign targeting three high-priority targets within the historical Berringa Gold mine. This has been some time in the planning as we refined and interpreted our 3-D model derived from old workings and data.
At Berringa, historical production of high-grade gold has amounted to 293,250 ounces at 8.3 g/t and we now start to test the hypothesis that there is a considerable gold endowment remaining. This drill programme is not large, but will at minimum provide valuable information, and at maximum may identify the continuation of high grade mineralisation.
The key thing to remember in the Goldfields, which are typified by nuggety mineralisation, is that anything over 0.1 g/t may be regarded as mineralised, and as recent results in a neighbouring tenement showed, a sampling of one half of a core may yield little gold, while the other half core on sampling may yield over 20 g/t. We are drilling at this stage for structure, and drilling out a structure to try to delineate a mineralised body at a typical 6-8 g/t gold grade would be a later stage.
Further updates will be given as drilling continues."
BACKGROUND
Red Rock announced the acquisition of exploration licence EL 5535 (the "Acquisition"), covering the footprint of the Berringa workings, on 22 September 2022.
Further background to the Acquisition including detailed records of historical production from Berringa (293,250 ounces of gold at 8.3g/t), as well as further information regarding the conceptual (but unproven) exploration targets totalling up to 2.91M ounces of gold was included in the Company's announcement on 6 July 2022.
A map highlighting the location of Berringa may be seen below:
http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/4515J_1-2022-12-12.pdf
Diagrams, images and videos from the Victoria Goldfields are available on the Company's website through the following link and will be updated as drilling progresses:
https://www.rrrplc.com/projects-and-investments/gold/red-rock-australasia/
The JV is in the process of renewing licence EL5535 seeking a 5-year exploration licence period with effect from 16 November 2022.
DRILL PROGRAMME HIGHLIGHTS
Approximately 1,000m of diamond drilling is to be undertaken at Berringa by the JV drilling contractor, Trimac Drilling Pty Ltd, Ballarat, Victoria.
An estimated 5 drill holes are anticipated, with an average depth of 200m per hole, over three priority gold targets outlined below.
§ South Birthday: The South Birthday and Birthday mines at Berringa had the most consistent mineralisation within what is known as the Birthday Reef. This Reef consists of a laminated 1-2m quartz lode found within a black shale unit which rolls from the west limb into the east limb of the main anticline. This mineralisation remains open to the south and planned drilling here is designed to test for the southerly plunge of the Birthday Reef below the historical workings of a previously mined lode.
§ Berringa Syndicate: Targeting a previously identified non-JORC compliant resource at the Southland Mine to confirm the potential grade and tonnage identified by the Berringa Syndicate in the 1980s. Here drilling will be targeting the downdip potential of the Kangaroo quartz reef found within the eastern limb of the main anticline.
§ Kangaroo East: Previous mining at the Kangaroo Mine identified a secondary parallel reef named the Big Reef which is located east of the main Kangaroo shaft. The Big Reef is a laminated quartz reef hosted within a black shale on the western limb of the eastern anticline. The drill target will test for the along-strike extension of the Big Reef. The successful drill testing of this lode along strike extension could lead to further exploration opportunities on this lode elsewhere in the Berringa gold field.
Arrangements have been made with local accredited assay laboratories for gold focused assay testing with expedited turnaround on a batch sampling basis. Subject to the pre-Christmas drilling timetable, first assay results are expected in early 2023.
FURTHER PROJECT WORK
- In parallel with drilling, the JV will investigate the potential to excavate and open a buried entrance to Berringa. If deemed to be possible, the reopened adit would provide access to the Berringa shaft sub-surface.
- The JV is in ongoing discussions regarding the possibility of processing ore at the nearby Ballarat Gold Mine (located approximately 25km away), should the JV discover and develop an economic gold deposit. This arrangement would dramatically reduce both the mine build-out time horizons and heavy capital requirements for building a new standalone processing facility.
JOINT VENTURE STRUCTURE
The joint venture is held through New Ballarat Gold Corporation PLC, which is focused on the prolific Victorian Goldfields of Australia. The JV is held between Red Rock (50.1%) and its partner, London-listed Power Metal Resources PLC (49.9%) (together the "JV Partners").
NBGC has a wholly owned Australian operating subsidiary Red Rock Australasia Pty Ltd which holds a strong land position comprising 15 granted exploration licences for a total area of 1,841km2 within the gold fields of Victoria, Australia, principally around the mining centre of Ballarat.
5 licences covering 493km2 await grant. The company has carefully assembled its portfolio of properties comprising a broad range from robust exploration targets to near term resource potential, all of which remain largely undeveloped by modern explorers.
With the first tenements granted only in 2021, RRAL has already conducted detailed exploration of its initial targets, including a diamond drill test of two prospects in December 2021 to Spring 2022.
The JV Partners retain the intention of listing the JV company NBGC and will make further announcements as appropriate.
QUALIFIED PERSON STATEMENT
The technical information in this report is compiled by David Holden, BSc, MBA, MEM, who is a member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists and the Executive Officer and Exploration Manager of RRAL. He 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.
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 visit www.rrrplc.com or 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
NOTE TO EDITORS
Red Rock Resources plc - Background
Red Rock Resources plc (LON:RRR) is an AIM listed metals exploration company focused on gold, copper and battery metals and principally active in Africa and Australia. It has historically been involved with production as well as exploration, having brought a historic gold mine back into production in Colombia and participated in the development to production of a major open pit manganese mine in South Africa.
The Company currently has gold exploration projects in Kenya, West Africa and Australia, copper/cobalt exploration in Congo, and lithium exploration in Zimbabwe.
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