RE: Drilling starting...9 May 2025 19:03
Thank you for your email regarding Ormonde Mining.
We share your frustration with the share price, although this is against a challenging backdrop with increased market volatility driven by uncertainty and geopolitical factors.
The earn-in agreement between TRU Precious Metals Eldorado Gold signed last summer was a significant endorsement of the Golden Rose Project – a phenomenal transaction with a US$4 billion gold company attracted into the prospect within 12 months of the investment by Ormonde. The option provides Eldorado the right to earn 80% of the project investing over CA$15M in a multi-year work programme and via cash payments to TRU – plus most importantly a potentially extremely valuable net smelter royalty for TRU on future production. Should Eldorado follow this option to its conclusion, TRU could be in receipt substantial cash and still retain a 1% net smelter royalty in mining revenues. Ormonde, in turn, owns 36.3% of TRU.
Drilling out a multi commodity resource and taking a mine into construction and production (akin to their neighbour Calibre Mining) requires a long-term view, and clearly Eldorado likes the asset a great deal and has the resources to advance this. It shows Ormonde’s sound investment rationale for acquiring a significant stake in TRU a year before Eldorado optioned the asset.
TRU continues to make progress at Golden Rose. We have today noted further progress, with drilling having commenced on a highly targeted, approximate 1,800 metres 2025 drilling programme. This has been supported by the completion of a thorough review of the entire property at Golden Rose. The completion of this review enables TRU to unlock the value at Golden Rose in a cost effective and targeted manner.
Peak Nickel, Ormonde’s other investment, continues to make progress. Ormonde remains of the view that a high-grade nickel asset in a jurisdiction such as Scotland will prove valuable in due course. Simply, Europe needs more nickel for electrification and needs to source it from within its borders. There aren’t many projects like Rodburn – but nickel is challenging currently and so exploration is slow, aligned with access to capital. That is the nature of the mineral exploration market at present.