The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information pursuant to Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014 as it forms part of UK domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 as amended.

3 May 2022

Rockfire Resources plc

("Rockfire" or the "Company")

Assays confirm the significance of Molaoi Project
 

Rockfire Resources plc (LON: ROCK), the gold and base metal exploration company, is pleased to announce that reanalysis of historical diamond drill core has verified the high grades reported by previous explorers at the Molaoi zinc deposit in Greece. This verification is a big step towards de-risking the deposit and provides enormous encouragement for the team to move forward rapidly with resource expansion plans.

Highlights

·    Reanalysis of historical diamond drill core has returned high-grade zinc, lead and silver values which closely replicate historical analyses. Weighted average variance does not exceed 10% for any of the elements.

·    Samples were selected to verify a spread of original assays ranging from 0.9 % Zn to a maximum of 36.75 % Zn. This was to test a broad population of both low-grade and high-grade values throughout the deposit.

·    The reanalysed samples were selected to represent a spatial spread to include a 1.5 km distance where most of the historical drilling has occurred. This is an important aspect of achieving our planned inaugural JORC resource at Molaoi.

·    The highest individual assay returned is 0.5 m @ 34.1 % Zn, 12.9 % Pb and 474 g/t Ag. Not all the core was sampled, and this individual sample is within a broader zone which was not resampled but grades 3 m @ 13.0 % Zn, 4.6 % Pb and 159.8 g/t Ag in historical analysis.

·    A total of 51 samples were taken of the old core, of which 30 returned zinc values above 10 % Zn. A further 7 samples returned zinc above 5 % Zn.

·    Of the 51 samples collected, 26 returned lead assays higher than 2 % Pb and 32 samples returned silver assays over 50 g/t Ag.

·    These samples are within a densely drilled strike length of 1.5 km and a further 5.5 km strike is available for expansion. Historical drilling demonstrates that high-grade zinc already exists along this additional 5.5 km trend.

·    Assay results from sampling of gold and critical metals is awaited and will be reported when received by the Company.

·    The Rockfire team is working on upgrading the historical resource to report a mineral resource estimate for Molaoi which complies with the JORC Code for reporting.

A complete summary table of results can be viewed by following the link provided here. Each of the individual samples included in this table occur within broader zinc-bearing intervals and the widths quoted do not represent the entire width of mineralisation. http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/0636K_1-2022-5-3.pdf

David Price, Chief Executive Officer of Rockfire, commented:

"These are outstanding assay results which verify the historical drilling and assaying. This verification process forms part of Rockfire's technical Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC), which is an important aspect of achieving an inaugural JORC resource estimate. Verification assays of this magnitude and accuracy confirm the significance of the Molaoi project and contribute to overall de-risking of the project.

"The Hellenic Authority for Geological and Mineral Research (E.A.G.M.E.) is to be commended for its analytical excellence. The core has been stored in excellent condition by E.A.G.M.E., which allowed for important quality control testing nearly 40 years after the initial drilling.

"The process of design and approval for our planned drilling programme at Molaoi is expected to take up to five months. In the meantime, our team is working on the inaugural JORC resource at Molaoi and our exploration in Queensland continues despite persistent wet weather conditions. We will keep the market informed of our exploration work as results come to hand."

For further information on the Company, please visit www.rockfireresources.com or contact the following: 

Notes to Editors

Rockfire Resources plc (LON: ROCK) is an exploration company with a portfolio of 100%-owned near-surface gold and large-scale copper projects in Queensland, Australia and a soon to be acquired high-grade zinc deposit in Greece.

The gold project is located within 50 km of two operating gold mines. The Plateau Gold Deposit is part of the Lighthouse Tenement and bears significant geological similarities to the nearby Mt Wright gold mine (45km to the northeast), where 1.5 million ounces of gold have been mined. Plateau has a JORC resource of 130,000 ounces of gold and an additional 10,000 JORC ounces of gold is at the Double Event prospect, close to Plateau.

Drilling to date at the Company's copper projects, Copperhead and Copper Dome (35 km and 85 km southwest of the town of Proserpine respectively), are indicative of large-scale porphyry targets. Both projects have been drilled by previous explorers and a JORC resource of 120,000 T of copper equivalent value has been found so far.

Rockfire Resources has adopted a strategy of growth and the acquisition of the Molaoi zinc deposit in Greece forms an important aspect of that strategy. Molaoi represents a high-grade zinc project and Rockfire intends to evaluate, expand and develop the zinc resources at Molaoi. The existence of a portal and decline will be beneficial if it is possible to gain access to this infrastructure once again. Molaoi lies within 10 km of the coast, providing excellent access to potential markets.