Red Rock Resources PLC

("Red Rock" or the "Company")

Copper and Cobalt Drilling in DRC -

Positive Results, High Grade Cobalt Encountered

15 February 2022

Red Rock Resources Plc. ("Red Rock" or "the Company"), is a natural resource development company with interests in gold and base metals, principally in Africa and Australia. The Company today announces, further to the announcement of 11 October 2021 and later updates, the results of the reverse circulation (RC) drill programme at the Luanshimba copper-cobalt project in the Haut-Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Luanshimba project is operated by Red Rock Galaxy SA, an 80% owned Congolese subsidiary of Red Rock.  The drill programme was carried out by Rubaco SARL, with geological supervision being provided by Minerals Exploration Associates SARL ("Minex Consulting SARL" or "Minex").

Highlights:

·    2,763 samples from the 2,469m, 29 hole programme now analysed and returned.

·    Three prospects now named as Kilembwe (18 holes), Luanshimba North (9 holes) and Luanshimba East (2 holes) drilled. (See Fig 1 below)

·    7 holes stopped before target depth due to ground conditions and general limit of drilling 100m due to rig limitations.

·    Copper intersections of significance include:

o  6 metres at 0.61% (including 1 metre at 1.45%) towards the bottom of hole DRC014 at Kilembwe

o  3 metres at 0.7% and 3m at 1.14% encountered towards the bottom of holes DRC019 and DRC021 at Luanshimba North.

·    Copper intercepts appear to be present as hypogene chalcopyrite in reduced dolomite underlying carbonaceous shales with pyrite, in a sequence interpreted as similar to the Kitwe Formation of the Zambian Copperbelt.

·    Future exploration will test the potential 1.3km of continuity between these two areas of reduced dolomite underlying carbonaceous shale with potential copper/cobalt ores at depth, and will test for the copper mineralisation extending towards surface as it approaches the keel of the syncline to the South.

·    Cobalt is extensively present, occurring as heterogenite in fault gouges and breccias; notably:

o  43m at 0.13% including 11m at 0.2% at Kilembwe in DRC015 in a brecciated argillaceous arenite

o  3m at 0.37% related to a fault gouge, overlying 13m at 0.10% in a brecciated argillaceous arenite at Kilembwe in DRC008

o  5m at 0.78% including 2m at 1.4% at DRC023 in Luanshimba East.

·    This combination of occasional high Cobalt grades, with areas of considerable vertical extent of mineralisation, suggest that although weathering has been a significant factor in mineralisation there are likely to be others, requiring further drill testing.

Figure 1: Luanshimba Project RC holes on Cu geochem anomaly map

http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/7637B_1-2022-2-15.pdf

Red Rock Chairman Andrew Bell comments: "We carried out an initial drill programme to test the hypothesis that the geochemical anomalies and favourable geophysics were not associated with potentially significant mineralisation.

The fences were 100m apart and we only drilled at intervals of 200m or more, so the drilling was wide-spaced, and only to about 100m depth, so through the water table but hardly beyond. We could easily have missed every target, and could hardly expect to hit any bullseyes.

What has been achieved has therefore greatly exceeded our expectations and can be considered a success, identifying but barely penetrating a potentially large Copper-bearing structure, as well as encountering significant thicknesses and some exceptional grades of Cobalt which with closer-spaced RAB drilling can be better defined.

Several holes ended just as they were entering promising pyrite and chalcopyrite mineralisation, and the next stage of exploration will need to include diamond drilling to increase structural understanding and to test for Copper and Cobalt bearing ores deeper in the sequence." 

Background

Red Rock owns 80% of the Luanshimba Project, which is situated 65 km south-east of the provincial capital of Lubumbashi in Haut-Katanga, in a 420 hectare prospecting license (PR13513) in the Congolese Copper belt.

Figure 2: Comparative Katangan stratigraphy of the Zambian and Katangan Copperbelt

http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/7637B_2-2022-2-15.pdf

The tenement is situated along a disrupted anticline with Roan sediments draping off a nearby basement dome.  

Drilling tends to confirm the historical geological overview that most of the permit is underlain by a gently NW-plunging asymmetric syncline whose westerly limb is best revealed by probing in Luanshimba North. Here, there is a thick sequence of interbedded siltstones, shale and dolomite that is probably correlative of the Zambian Kitwe formation which includes the "Ore Shale" horizon. There is a tendency for thicker dolomite to prevail in the more northerly holes which would equate more likely with the Upper Roan. However, the sequence is severely disrupted by thick breccias that may have an easterly to NW-SE orientation. However, without diamond drill core, the positioning of the optimum ore bands and their equivalence with the Katangan Mines Series still needs to be determined.

Summary of the Drill Results

In both Kilembwe and Luanshimba North prospects, the RC drilling was placed along 14 cross-sections 100 metres apart; 12 are oriented SSW-NNE, approximately perpendicular to the presumed structural and stratigraphic strike. The remaining 2 are situated in the Luanshimba East Prospect.

While relatively few potentially economically significant intercepts were documented, 1-6m segments of sub-marginal Cu (0.1-0.4% Cu) along with Co close to or just above the 0.1% cut-off occur mostly in dolomite and immediately adjacent siltstones. The possibility of redox contrasts and a less permeable capping by pelitic sediments cannot be ruled out.

In the Kilembwe area, siltstones, silty arenites and shales dominate over dolomitic beds and in the southernmost holes overlie sandstone and arkosic arenites typical of the footwall to mineralization in the Zambian stratigraphy. However, the inferred arcuate easterly trending fault and associated breccias disrupt the sequence and bring the footwall arenites much closer to the surface in the southern holes. Despite the absence of Cu in the footwall sandstones, the Cu soil geochemical anomaly still persists until the edge of the permit because of redistribution by weathering from siltstones, breccias and dolomites that overlie arenites. Sub-marginal Cu and significant cobalt occur mostly in argillaceous sediments much more frequently than in dolomite, particularly where they have been fractured and brecciated while localized enrichment occurs in association with shallow weathered breccias and fault gouge.

With only 2 holes at Luanshimba East and deep weathering, results are too sparse to comment with authority except that some significant superficial enrichment was noted (DRC023). The sequence appears to be highly disturbed by faulting as both sandstone and dolomite are juxtaposed.

Regarding copper, good results were received from two holes DRC014 and DRC021 in both Kilembwe and Luanshimba North prospects. DRC 014 revealed 1m at 1.45% Cu using a cut-off grade of 1% Cu and 6m at 0.61% Cu with a cut-off grade of 0.5% Cu, while DRC021 returned 3m at 1.14% Cu with a cut-off grade of 1% Cu. In both holes the mineralised zone occurs as hypogene chalcopyrite hosted in a greenish grey dolomite underlying 5 to 10 metres thick carbonaceous shale carrying pyrite. This might indicate the hole intersected a more distal pyrite zone, and the chalcopyrite occurring below indicates a vector towards better copper mineralization.

Additional holes showed modest to mediocre Cu values at a cut-off grade of 0.5% Cu. DRC019 drilled in Luanshimba North intersected 3m at 0.70% Cu. In this hole, copper occurs as chalcopyrite in the same greenish-grey dolomite underlying the carbonaceous shale. At Luanshimba East, DRC023 contained 2m at 0.70% Cu hosted in the lateritic overburden and is most likely associated with superficial secondary enrichment. 

The Luanshimba North Prospect is believed to occur in the Kitwe Formation or its Katangan equivalent and locally is characterised by dolomite, dolomitic siltstone alternating with chert, carbonaceous shale, argillaceous siltstone and in places intensely brecciated zones. Copper mineralisation is displayed as disseminated and blebby chalcopyrite overlying a pyritic zone characterised by fine grained disseminated pyrite hosted in the carbonaceous shale.

The following Intercepts table summarizes the copper grade, thickness and the lithological unit that host the copper mineralisation:

Table 1: ALS Assays results for the Luanshimba RC holes - 0.5% Cu Cut-off grade

Regarding cobalt analyses, good results were obtained from most of the RC holes drilled in the Kilembwe Prospect. Cobalt mineralisation occurs as heterogenite in replacement mode within fault gouges and strongly brecciated layers affecting the Mindola Formation. The following table summarizes the cobalt intercepts observed at Luanshimba. Good results were received from DRC015 which intersected 43m at 0.13 % Co including 11m at 0.20% Cu hosted in a brecciated argillaceous arenite. DRC014 cut 12m at 0.11% Co hosted in fault gouge. DRC008 reveals 3m at 0.37% Co related to a fault gouge that overlies 13m at 0.10% Co hosted in a brecciated argillaceous arenite. DRC010 shows 8m at 0.14% Co hosted in fault gouge. The results are reported in Table 2 below.

In the Luanshimba East Prospect, excellent results were received from DRC023 with 5m at 0.78% Co including 2m at 1.59% Co. Here, cobalt mineralisation occurs as superficially enriched heterogenite hosted in the lateritic overburden and is associated with low grade copper.

In both Luanshimba North and East Prospects, cobalt mineralisation occurs as matrix replacement associated with black iron oxides hosted in fault gouge (DRC024) and/or in weathered fractures in carbonaceous shale and dolomite.

Table 2: ALS Assays results for the Luanshimba RC holes - 0.1% Co Cut-off grade

Additional Notes and Interpretations

An examination of the overall thickness and the grade of the intercepts identified two separate zones: the first coincides with the Kilembwe Prospect which occurs in the Mindola Formation. Supergene oxide mineralisation is mostly related to the faulting system in this target. A plot of the cumulative thickness of the cobalt intercepts shows a SSW-NNE trend and is open towards the SW (see Fig 3).

Figure 3: Cumulative thickness of Co Intercepts for the Kilembwe Prospect

http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/7637B_3-2022-2-15.pdf

Note that the cobalt mineralisation intercepted in the DRC014 (1m at 1.14% Cu and 0.16% Co) is apparently not related to any fault system. On the contrary, the cobalt mineralisation lies within both argillaceous dolomite and dolomite associated with a reduced litho-facies that may also be responsible for enhanced copper grades.

The frequent association between possible localized Co-Cu mineralization with fault structures, wide spacing of the drill holes together with their vertical dip signifies that if lateral metal dispersion in the weathered environment is not extensive, there could be possible discrepancies between the thicknesses of Co mineralization shown above in Figure 7 and actual positions of other mineralized structures. Thus, the inferred faults based on historical mapping may be inaccurate, or significant mineralization is controlled by the intersection of some other structures with favourably mineralized sediments.

Luanshimba North revealed good copper mineralization such as the RC hole DRC021 that intercepted 3m at 1.14% Cu associated with 3m at 0.16% Co from 97.00 to 100.00m; both copper and cobalt are hosted in a greenish grey dolomite showing disseminated chalcopyrite. The footwall to this reduced dolomite in both RC holes DRC014 and DRC021 is pyritic carbonaceous shale. This indicates a typical mineral zonation that characterizes the Ore Shale Member of the Kitwe Formation and also parts of the equivalent typical R2 Mines Series in Katanga. Similar lithological units and mineral zonation were intercepted in RC holes DRC020, DRC019, DLSB_DRC022 and DRC025 situated in the vicinity of DRC021.

Using a cut-off grade of 0.5% Cu, significant intercepts averaging 6m at 0.61% Cu in DRC014 hosted in the reduced dolomite underlying the carbonaceous shale, while DRC019 averaged 3m at 0.70% Cu from the same reduced dolomite with the similar mineral zonation. Assuming there is continuity of the reduced mineralized dolomite between these two areas, there could be a prospective stretch about 1.3km long which is open ended in all directions except the southeast (Fig 4).

Figure 4: Luanshimba North Mineral zonation showing both reduced and oxidized facies

http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/7637B_4-2022-2-15.pdf

QAQC Procedure and Analysis

A total of 2,763 RC samples were collected from the Phase I RC Drilling on the Luanshimba Project among which duplicates, standards and blank samples are included.

About 2 kgs of rock chips sample were collected as a composite for each metre drilled and placed into a labelled plastic bag with a labelled ticket book having the same number within it.

Minex established a clear industry best practice QA/QC procedure regarding the collection of accurate data regarding the sampling protocol for the RC drilling programme. Duplicates and standards (certified reference materials, CRMs) are inserted into the sample batch at a rate of one in twenty, and blank samples are inserted at a rate of one in fifty samples.

Field duplicates were inserted after each 20 samples prior to the samples being sent to the preparation laboratory. Samples collected from one or two RC Holes were put into one batch and a dispatch form was filled out by the field technician and signed off by the field geologist.

Sixteen batches were constituted and dispatched to the Congo Analytical Laboratory (COAL) which is operating the ALS Preparation Laboratory facilities in Lubumbashi. The samples collected at from the field were dried, crushed and pulverized at the COAL prep lab and two samples of about 50 g of were produced: one was sent to ALS Geochemistry JHB in South Africa for analysis and the other was sent back to the Minex office to be analyzed using a portable XRF spectrometer.

Standard and blank CRM were inserted into the batches at the Minex office prior to send all the batches the analytical laboratory (ALS). A list of all the CRMs inserted into each batch is secure into the company database for further reference.

Multi-element ICP method was requested to analyse all samples and any over-limit high grade sample that gave back high-grade assays (Cu-Co) was then analysed using the specified Cu-Co analysis designed under the ALS code ME-OG62.

Three certified reference materials (CRM) were used as field standards for the current RC drilling programme. These CRMs include the AMIS 0031, AMIS 0118 and the AMIS 0119. The CRM AMIS 0031 and AMIS 0118 were made using the ore coming from the Lonshi Copper Mine in the DRC, while the CRM AMIS 0119 was made using the ore coming from the Kansanshi Mine in Zambia.

Good performance was observed from the analyses as most of the samples results are situated within the two standard deviation limits for the first CRM AMIS 0031 while very few analyses from the two other standards (AMIS0018 and 0119) were situated only just outside the negative standard deviation limits. Considering the deviation level of 95% as reported on the CRM certificates, these results are all within acceptable limits.

However, among the three CRM used for the QAQC analysis, only one has Co values reported on the certificates; therefore, the analysis of the Co performance was done only for the AMIS 0119 made from the sulphide ore sourced from the Kansanshi Project.

Analyses of AMIS 0119 performed very well and apart from one statistically insignificant outlier, are all situated within the two required standard deviation limits.  

ALS inserted the following nine certified reference materials CCU-1e, EMOG-17, GBM306-12, GBM908-10, MRGeo08, OREAS 905, OREAS 100a, OREAS134b and AMIS 0090 as lab standards for its internal quality analysis and control. Minex analysed the performance of five of the nine CRMs used by ALS to conduct the comparison with the performance learned from the CRM inserted by Minex.

The analysis of the CRM CCU-1e which was made from copper concentrate from the Flin Flon mill, Manitoba, Canada, shows that the copper values as obtained by ALS are situated within the acceptable standard deviation limits. Analysis of the values as received from the laboratory for the CRM GBM306-12 indicates that they are situated well with the 2 standard deviation limits.

For the CRMs GBM908-10 and OREAS905, a few samples are situated a short distance beyond the 95% standards tolerance limits for both copper and cobalt, although this may reflect the fact that the matrices do not match those of the typical Copperbelt CRMs.

Field duplicates were inserted in all the batches sent to both the preparation and analytical laboratories. The pulp duplicate samples inserted into the Luanshimba batches collected from the RC Drilling program were also analysed. The figures below show the results of the duplicate for the RC sampling data. In total, 138 duplicates samples were submitted for analysis, this being approximately 5% of the total sample stream.

The duplicate samples show a very strong correlation with the mother samples, with a correlation coefficient of 0.9788 for the analysis of the Cu content and this shows that the sample preparation precision is excellent. For Co, there was an excellent correlation between the mother sample and its duplicate with a correlation coefficient of 0.9919.

The analytical laboratory duplicated some of the samples from the batches submitted for analysis as control tools for their internal QC process. 176 samples were duplicated and reported from the analysis certificates. The  duplicate samples show a very strong correlation with their mother samples, namely, R2 of 0.9981 for Cu and 0.9919 for Co; this shows that the sample preparation precision is excellent.

Blank samples were inserted into the RC Drilling sampling batches that were sent to the ALS laboratory for analysis. AMIS 0415 used were made from silica chips and was acquired from AMIS.

Many Cu values from ALS assays exceeded the standard deviation limits of the blank, varying between 1.0 and 23 ppm with an average of 5.67 ppm which is above the upper standard limit of the acceptable deviation. However, they largely fall below the limit of quantification and thus are statistically not significant. However, two particular samples gave high values of Cu, with Cu values of 10ppm and 23ppm respectively. This indicates that there may be occasional contamination and an internal audit will be carried out in order to upgrade the internal protocol regarding sample preparation. By contrast, the blank Co values of the same samples returned values mostly close to the lower detection limit, well below 5 ppm which is perfectly acceptable.

The technical information in this report has been compiled and reviewed under the supervision of M. Kazadi S-B. Barry MSc, Pr.Sc.Nat., MGSSA, MSEG, who is a member of the South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions, and Mr Stephen Kalbskopf, BSc (Hons), FGSSA, MSEG. Mr. Kazadi and Mr Kalbskopf have sufficient experience in the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration. Mr. Kazadi consents to the inclusion in this announcement of the matters based on his information in the form and context in which it appears. Mr Kazadi is a Managing Director of Mineral Exploration Associates SARL, consultants (under the name Minex Consulting) to the Company.

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").

Glossary

For further information, please 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