RRR Results RNS Just Released -JV29 Dec 2022 12:58
AUSTRALIA
"The third key development we anticipated to be the pre-IPO fundraising and then the listing of our Australian joint venture subsidiary Red Rock Australasia Pty Ltd ("RRAL"), or its holding entity New Ballarat Gold Corporation Plc. Market conditions during the year created a poor environment for a gold float, and therefore by extension for pre-IPO funding. Much time was spent by the partners considering which market, in the changed circumstances, offered the best prospects. Towards the end of 2022 there was a consensus on London, but then a further downward movement in prices made us decide to first complete the year-end drill programme, which we expect to add material value, as a private company.
As long as we can continue to increase the value of RRAL, we should endeavour to wait as in volatile markets (and the mining and exploration sector is always volatile) the difference between floating into a strong gold share market and floating into a poor one is so great.
There are a number of different options for taking Australia forward. We could sell or buy to consolidate control in one partner, and we could float, or we could retain our interest as a bedrock asset in a safe jurisdiction to balance the well-defined and exciting, but risky potential in Congo. All these possibilities are under constant review and discussion, and the optimal choice may be different if we get an early award in the DRC, when we will be cashed up as few other companies will be. Currently we continue with our partners to fund the well-staffed, carefully managed, and active Australian company as a privately-held joint venture, which would not have been our first choice, but which is appropriate for the circumstances. Some Red Rock shareholders may regret that we have not already listed, as we had indicated that this was likely to happen, but our aim is to secure the best eventual outcome for Red Rock stakeholders, not the quickest, and we and our partners believe we have our finger on the pulse of the market and have made the right decisions.
Fortunately, the next phase of exploration - the drill programme about to start on one or both of the former mines in our portfolio, both high grade 300,000 oz producers historically - is likely in our view to produce results that will evidence the potential that remains down the dip or along the line of strike of these old mines. It should be noted that when we refer for example to the Berringa Mine, this was in fact exploited as a number of different operations, but proximal and contemporaneous and along the same strike, so that it is convenient to think of these efforts as one mine. This piecemeal exploitation is one of a number of factors that lead our analysts to identify significant mineralised targets at shallow depth within the project area.
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