Rockfire Resources raises £0.85m to fund drilling programmes

Gold and base metal exploration and development company Rockfire Resources has successfully completed a placing of new shares, it announced on Thursday, raising gross proceeds of £0.85m, to fund a number of inaugural drilling programmes at the Copper Dome and Copperhead projects, as well as ongoing drilling at the Plateau Gold Deposit.

The AIM-traded firm said the funds were raised through a placing of 121,429,200 new shares at an issue price of 0.7p each.

It said the shares would represent 12.72% of its enlarged issued share capital, and were subscribed for by a combination of new investors and existing shareholders.

The placing price represented a discount of 20.45% to the closing mid-market share price of an existing ordinary share on 5 May.

Rockfire noted that its largest shareholder and one of its non-executive directors Nicholas Walley subscribed for six million shares in the placing, thus increasing his holding to 59 million ordinary shares.

The net proceeds would be applied to inaugural reverse circulation drilling at Copper Dome, exploration reverse circulation drilling close to the resource at Plateau, and inaugural drilling at Copperhead.

“The Copper Dome and Copperhead porphyry projects have not been drilled for almost 50 years,” said chief executive officer David Price.

“When drilled in 1972, significant copper (and gold) was encountered in each drill hole.

“At Copper Dome, seven holes were drilled in 1972, and five holes were drilled at Copperhead.”

Price said that with new data from the “very high-resolution” magnetic surveys recently flown by Rockfire, specific targets were identified which it expected would vector towards the central parts of the porphyries.

“The Plateau Gold Deposit is shaping up nicely, having returned a material increase in resource ounces and positive indicators in early scoping work.

“It is prudent for the company to continue to drill this resource and to extend the gold envelope in areas which remain open along strike and at depth.

“Close to Plateau, new targets have been identified and our intention is to drill these too.”

A reverse circulation drilling rig was available in Charters Towers, Price said, with the company planning to mobilise “as quickly as possible” to commence drilling at Copper Dome.

“Our exploration manager is on site preparing the site for drilling, and we anticipate a start within the next few weeks.

“The market will be updated on our drilling progress.”

At 1443 BST, shares in Rockfire Resources were down 10.34% at 0.79p.