Placing to fund deep drilling at Plateau

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014 ("MAR"). With the publication of this announcement via a Regulatory Information Service, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.

 

29 June 2020

 

Rockfire Resources plc

("Rockfire" or the "Company")

 

Placing to fund deep drilling at Plateau

 

Rockfire Resources plc (LON: ROCK), the gold and base metal exploration company, is pleased to announce that it has successfully completed a placing of new ordinary shares in the Company, raising gross proceeds of £1,000,000. These funds will be used to drill up to 750m deep at the Company's 100% owned Plateau Gold Deposit ("Plateau"), part of the Lighthouse tenement in North Queensland, Australia.

 

Highlights

 

·    Successful raise of £1,000,000 through a placing of 117,647,100 new ordinary shares of 0.1p each in the Company (the "Placing Shares") at an issue price of 0.85 pence per Placing Share (the "Placing").

·    The Placing Shares will represent approximately 15.67 per cent. of the enlarged issued share capital of the Company and have been subscribed for by a combination of new investors and existing shareholders.

·    The Placing Shares are being issued at a price of 0.85 pence per Placing Share, representing a discount of approximately 13 per cent. to the closing mid-market share price of an existing ordinary share on 26 June 2020, the business day prior to this announcement. The Company will not be issuing any warrants in connection with the Placing.

·    Rockfire's largest shareholder and Non-executive Director, Nicholas Walley has subscribed for 748,200 shares in the Placing, thereby increasing his holding in the Company to 52,464,000 ordinary shares.

·    The net proceeds of the Placing will be applied to (i) the drilling programme at Plateau to test down to 750m deep; (ii) geophysical studies at the Lighthouse tenement; (iii) magnetometer surveys at Copperhead and Copper Dome; and (iv) general working capital purposes.

 

David Price, Chief Executive of Rockfire, said: "We are pleased that funding is in place to complete the deeper drill testing of Plateau to levels approaching 750m below surface. I wish to thank Allenby Capital for a successful placing, as well as our supportive shareholders who participated in the placing. I also extend a welcome to our register to new participants in the placing. We look forward to commencing our drill testing at depth at Plateau."

 

"At Mt Wright, the gold mine 47km to the northeast of Plateau on which the geological model for Plateau is based, the main zone of economic gold mineralisation was only encountered at depths beyond 300m from surface and extends to 1,200m depth. Our previous drilling to depths of 230m has intersected long intervals of low-grade gold, which is in line with expectations based on the Mt Wright mineralisation model. The funds now in place will test to 500m depth and an even deeper drill hole is planned to test to 750m vertical from surface."

 

"A diamond drill rig is available in Charters Towers and the Company plans to mobilise that rig as quickly as possible to commence the deep drilling. The market will be updated on our drilling progress."

 

Reasons for the Placing and use of proceeds

 

In addition to general working capital purposes, the net funds raised from the Placing will be used to fund the following specific areas: 

 

i.      Plateau drilling programme

The Company has recently completed Stage 1 of the drilling programme, which consisted of reverse circulation drilling of 6 drill holes. The next stages of the drilling programme at Plateau consist of the following:

·    Stage 2 - Reverse circulation drilling of 4 drill holes, for 897 metres, and diamond drilling of 6 drill holes, for 1,664 metres, expected to take approximately three months.

·    Stage 3 - Reverse circulation drilling of 1 drill hole, for 251 metres, expected to take approximately one week and diamond drilling of 1 drill hole, for 779 metres, expected to take approximately two months.

 

ii.     Lighthouse tenement

The Company will apply funds to geophysical surveys at the Lighthouse tenement, including a magnetometer survey and an Induced Polarisation survey. Further announcements regarding the timing of these studies will be released in due course. 

 

iii.    Copper projects

 

The Company is also planning to complete magnetometer surveys at Copperhead and Copper Dome, with a view to identifying targets for reverse circulation drilling.

 

Director participation in the Placing

 

Nicholas Walley, a Non-executive Director of the Company, has subscribed for 748,200 Placing Shares, at the issue price of 0.85 pence per ordinary share. Following this purchase, Nicholas Walley will hold 52,464,000 ordinary shares, equivalent to 6.99 per cent. of the Company's issued share capital as enlarged by the Placing. The FCA notification, made in accordance with the requirements of the EU Market Abuse Regulation, is appended below.

 

Details of the Placing and total voting rights

 

A total of 117,647,100 Placing Shares are to be issued at a price of 0.85 pence per ordinary share. The Placing has been conducted utilising the Company's existing share authorities. Allenby Capital acted as the Company's sole broker.  The Placing is conditional, inter alia, on admission of the Placing Shares to trading on AIM ("Admission") becoming effective.

 

Application has been made to the London Stock Exchange for the Placing Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM. It is expected that Admission will become effective and that dealings in the Placing Shares on AIM will commence on or around 13 July 2020.

 

On Admission, the Company's issued ordinary share capital will consist of 750,585,635 ordinary shares of 0.1p each, with one vote per ordinary share. The Company does not hold any ordinary shares in treasury.  Therefore, on Admission, the total number of ordinary shares and voting rights in the Company will be 750,585,635.  With effect from Admission, this figure may be used by shareholders in the Company as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the share capital of the Company under the FCA's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.

 

Information to distributors

 

Solely for the purposes of the product governance requirements contained within: (a) EU Directive 2014/65/EU on markets in financial instruments, as amended ("MiFID II"); (b) Articles 9 and 10 of Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2017/593 supplementing MiFID II; and (c) local implementing measures (together, the "Product Governance Requirements"), and disclaiming all and any liability, whether arising in tort, contract or otherwise, which any "manufacturer" (for the purposes of the Product Governance Requirements) may otherwise have with respect thereto, the Placing Shares have been subject to a product approval process, which has determined that the Placing Shares are: (i) compatible with an end target market of retail investors and investors who meet the criteria of professional clients and eligible counterparties, each as defined in MiFID II; and (ii) eligible for distribution through all distribution channels as are permitted by MiFID II (the "Target Market Assessment"). Notwithstanding the Target Market Assessment, investors should note that: the price of the Placing Shares may decline and investors could lose all or part of their investment; Placing Shares offer no guaranteed income and no capital protection; and an investment in Placing Shares is compatible only with investors who do not need a guaranteed income or capital protection, who (either alone or in conjunction with an appropriate financial or other adviser) are capable of evaluating the merits and risks of such an investment and who have sufficient resources to be able to bear any losses that may result therefrom. The Target Market Assessment is without prejudice to the requirements of any contractual, legal or regulatory selling restrictions in relation to the Placing.  Furthermore, it is noted that, notwithstanding the Target Market Assessment, only investors who have met the criteria of professional clients and eligible counterparties have been procured.  For the avoidance of doubt, the Target Market Assessment does not constitute: (a) an assessment of suitability or appropriateness for the purposes of MiFID II; or (b) a recommendation to any investor or group of investors to invest in, or purchase, or take any other action whatsoever with respect to Placing Shares.

 

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

Rockfire Resources plc:	[email protected]
David Price, Chief Executive Officer
Allenby Capital Limited (Nominated Adviser & Broker)	Tel: +44 (0) 20 3328 5656
John Depasquale / Asha Chotai
Matt Butlin / Guy McDougall
Yellow Jersey	[email protected]
Sarah Hollins / Henry Wilkinson / Faye Calow	Tel: +44 (0) 20 3004 9512

 

1	Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities / person closely associated
a)	Name	Nicholas Walley
2	Reason for the notification
a)	Position/status	Non-Executive Director
b)	Initial notification /Amendment	Initial notification
3	Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor
a)	Name	Rockfire Resources plc
b)	LEI	213800THSZQSFKTXOI24
4	Details of the transaction(s): section to be repeated for (i) each type of instrument; (ii) each type of transaction; (iii) each date; and (iv) each place where transactions have been conducted
a)	Description of the financial instrument, type of instrument  Identification code	Ordinary shares of 0.1p each in Rockfire Resources plc   Identification code (ISIN) for Rockfire Resources plc ordinary shares: GB00B42TN250
b)	Nature of the transaction	Purchase of shares
c)	Price(s) and volume(s)	Price(s) Volume(s) 0.85p  748,200
d)	Aggregated information  - Aggregated volume - Price	N/A
e)	Date of the transaction	29 June 2020
f)	Place of the transaction	Outside a trading venue