Aim-listed Red Rock Resources has noted that its senior management will have to personally travel to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to resolve a $10-million claim the company has instituted in relation to its interest in the VUP copper/cobalt joint venture.

This despite having said on February 5 that it expected the matter to close within a week.

“What should have been the simplest of matters, obtaining our share of the sales proceeds of an asset bought and paid for in 2018, has taken far too long but I am confident that we will prevail and receive the monies owed,” Red Rock chairperson Andrew Bell said on March 6.

On January 24, the company reported that its wholly-owned subsidiary in the DRC had obtained an executory judgment for $2.5-million in 2022, being 50.1% of $5-million paid to a local partner by a buyer, and that the result of the arbitration hearings held in Kinshasa to obtain $7.5-million, being 50.1% of the $15-million still to be paid by the buyer, was pending.

A draft of the arbitration award was received by Red Rock and awaited finalisation and release. However, ever since the Presidential and Parliamentary elections in the DRC on December 31, 2023, were concluded, with Felix Tshisekedi having won a second term in office, this process and the finalisation of payments was expected to resume.

“We have made considerable progress but we consider that coordination of the final steps requires our presence in Kinshasa,” Bell said.

He confirmed that senior management had been in constant communication with the company’s DRC representative, its lawyer and its local partner and that senior management would arrive in the DRC either this week or next with a view to finalising the matter.

Meanwhile, the company said a team of Red Rock representatives was in Kenya working on the renewal of two licences there. The company has a 723 000 oz gold mineral resource and a tailings project in the country.

Renewal of the licences will allow for the next phase of exploration to proceed with the aim of increasing the resource to more than one-million ounces.

CÔTE D'IVOIRE
Further, following expressions of interest by third parties, Canadian consulting firm Watts, Griffis and McOuat has been commissioned to produce a short report on the seven gold licences held or applied for by a Red Rock subsidiary in Côte d'Ivoire, and will be distributing this at the Prospector and Developers Association of Canada conference in Toronto this week.

Each licence is for an area of about 300 km².

To do justice to these licences, some of which Red Rock believes are highly prospective, all possibilities for sale, farm-in or joint venture, either of parts or of the whole of the portfolio, are being considered, the company said.

“Gold is now trading at an all-time high price, fulfilling predictions made for many months, and this will present us with more opportunities to crystallise and establish the value of our diversified gold portfolio that contains early-stage exploration, established resources and early and advanced stage development projects, as well as royalties,” Bell said.