Chesterfield Resources PLC Regulatory News (CHF)

Chesterfield Resources / EPIC: CHF / Market: LSE / Sector: Mining

13 October 2020

Chesterfield Resources Plc

New Troodos West licence applications, operational growth planning and update

Chesterfield Resources plc is pleased to announce that it is increasing its portfolio of exploration permits at its Troodos West licence package. In addition to the two new licences granted so far this year, Filousa and Lysos-Kinousa, the company has now applied for two more licenses to expand its exploration footprint in the area.

Chesterfield is actively managing its licence packages both to optimise the prospectivity of its search areas while also avoiding carrying unnecessary rental costs. After an initial exploration assessment of its Troodos East licence area, the company has decided to let this licence lapse. Similarly, some land has been conceded in Troodos North.

The company now holds licences granted over a total area of 51.1 km2 at Troodos West, with a further 6.5 km2 under application. The area covered by licences granted at Troodos West has now grown by nearly 60% since the business was acquired by the company in 2018. Licences granted totalling 30.6 km2 are held at the Discovery South exploration area and 12.5 km2 at Troodos North, giving a portfolio covering in total 94 km2  (with the potential to increase this to over 100 km2 subject to the granting of the new applications at Troodos West). Updated maps of company's licence areas can be found on the company website under "operations", "permits and targets".

The overall impact of these land package changes is a greater emphasis on Troodos West as Chesterfield prepares for the next stage of its exploration and development programme in 2021. The company also plans commence new phases of exploration work at the other two licence areas next year.

As part of its planning and growth management, the company has decided that it will be necessary to recruit a full time Chief Operating Officer for its projects in Cyprus for 2021 and beyond. Once the current diamond drill campaign is completed it has been agreed that Michael Parker, Managing Director, who is currently on a part-time contract, will move onto a consulting contract as Technical Consultant, in line with that of another of our senior geologists, Dr Neil O'Brien.

The drilling campaign is running to schedule with over 900m of diamond drilling completed so far and the first batch of core samples about to ship to the assay laboratory in Romania. The company has also decided to expand its AMT geophysics survey in response to exploration work at site. Details of this will be provided soon.

Executive Chairman Martin French commented "as our programme has progressed we have become increasingly confident about the prospectivity of our Troodos West licence area, and therefore have decided to take up more land. We are now planning for the next phase of our project in 2021. We have decided to rationalise our management structure and hire a full-time operations executive for Cyprus, as Mike Parker has increasing demands on his time and we anticipate a heavier operational work programme. There is much activity on site. We expect to announce results of the AMT survey this month, and diamond drilling once we have appraised assay results."

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About Chesterfield Resources

Chesterfield Resources is a copper-gold exploration company active in Cyprus, where it holds the largest mineral exploration licence area of any operator on the island.

Cyprus is regarded as a good quality exploration location. It is a member of the EU, and its legal system is based on English common law. There has been minimal exploration activity on the island in the last 46 years since the invasion by Turkey in 1974 put a halt to what had been a very active mining industry.

Since that time, exploration technology and geological knowledge has improved significantly. The company is exploring for VMS (Volcanognic Massive Sulphide) deposits, which typically occur in stacks and clusters. Historically only those deposits which were visible from surface have been mined. It is believed that many more deposits remain undiscovered buried near surface, and the company is using modern techniques to locate them.

While copper is the main exploration target, it is noteworthy that gold was not historically exploited in Cyprus as its price was pegged to just $35 per ounce when the mining industry was active in the 1960s and 1970s (less than 50 times today's price). Gold has been encountered in several locations in the exploration target area and is an important part of the exploration objective.

The exploration team is led by very senior geologists: Neil O'Brian, formally Head of Exploration, Lundin Mining, Dave Cliff, previously Head of Exploration Europe, Rio Tinto, assisted by Mike Parker, a senior geologist with First Quantum Minerals.

The current focus of exploration is in the Troodos West group of licences belonging to the company, with around 30 defined targets within a five km radius. The objective is to discover several VMS deposits in close proximity to each other to create a mining project with a centralised processing unit.

Chesterfield Resources is committed to world class environmental standards in all of its operations to mine copper, which is essential to developing clean technology projects worldwide. The company hopes to develop industry and opportunities for the benefit of the Republic of Cyprus.

Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure

Certain information contained in this announcement would have been deemed inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 until the release of this announcement.

**ENDS**

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