With the Drilling Contract Awarded at Mikei Gold Project in Kenya announced today and the reverse circulation (RC) drill programme has begun yesterday to take the first step towards delineating a resource on the Luanshimba copper-cobalt project in the Haut-Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
We took the opportunity to speak with Andrew to get his take on both announcements which look very positive for the company moving forward.
Red Rock Chairman Andrew Bell comments: “We have renovated the Mikei Camp and built an experienced technical team including some former employees who worked on the area with us before 2014.
Base Drilling was selected as our drill contractor after a competitive tender process, and we look forward to working with this experienced company.
We expect this infill and step out drill programme to give us some promising results, as well as testing the deeper mineralised zone. It is focussed on the KKM prospect where the 2021 MRE was most conservative in its adjustment downward of the 2012 MRE, and where there is most potential benefit from establishing the continuity and extent of the conceptual pit shell.
Elsewhere our in-house team has finished a ground magnetic (“GM”) survey and initial interpretation at the MK prospect, a future drill target where we seek more clarity on the structure, and has now moved to conduct ground geophysics and mapping, including GM and induced polarisation (“IP”), on some targets in the eastern license.
We have great confidence in the prospects for expanding our Resource through the exploration we are now beginning to undertake”.
Programme Begins at DRC copper-cobalt Project
“Having finished camp and well construction and site preparation, the Company received drillers on site last week and drilling of the first hole began on Sunday.
We are optimistic of the potential of this site and given the exploration results to date we have designed the initial programme to test for a shallow depth mineralised zone. Some of the IP results are suggestive of a system that extends to greater depths, which may require additional testing in a follow-up programme.
We are in the right area and the right geological setting, and have followed a disciplined exploration approach which has given increasingly positive indications. Drilling however is the ultimate test. This is the first project in the DRC which we have taken from a greenfields prospect to drilling, our first opportunity to work with these drillers, and the first test of our exploration approach to the Copperbelt.
The world needs a great deal more copper and cobalt. The Congo is an improving but still difficult country and we had to overcome many obstacles in our first years there, but it is the best place to find these vital commodities.”
