Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - April 22, 2020) - Royal Road Minerals Limited (TSXV: RYR) ("Royal Road" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that its 100% owned Colombian subsidiary, Exploraciones Northern Colombia SAS ("ENC"), has entered into a formalization agreement (the "Formalization Agreement") and a related earn-in option and royalty agreement (collectively, the "Agreements") with the proprietors of the La Esmeralda Gold Mine ("La Esmeralda"), an informal gold mine located in the municipality of Los Andes-Sotomayor, Nariño district, Colombia. La Esmeralda is located within concession contract HH2-12001X ("the Concession"), held by AngloGold Ashanti (AGA), pending assignment to ENC pursuant to a Stock Purchase Agreement dated March 4, 2019 (see press release March 5, 2019).
The Agreements were negotiated and entered into by the Company with La Esmeralda under the framework of the Colombian government's National Policy for Mining Formalization adopted by the Ministry of Mines and Energy. Under the terms of the Formalization Agreement, a specific portion of the area under the Concession will be returned by the Company so that a new concession contract (the "La Esmeralda Concession") over such returned area may be granted to La Esmeralda, enabling legal and responsible mining operations to resume at the La Esmeralda gold mine. In exchange, ENC will receive a quarterly royalty equivalent to 3% of the doré extracted from the La Esmeralda Concession and has been granted the sole and exclusive right to carry out all exploration activities on the La Esmeralda Concession and the right to acquire 70% of the La Esmeralda Concession, subject to the completion of certain exploration milestones as summarized below. In-case the Company assists in further optimizing mine operations and increasing production at La Esmeralda, ENC may increase the royalty to be received by a further 1%.
About the La Esmeralda Gold Mine
The La Esmeralda gold mine is a shallow-dipping, quartz-carbonate vein and vein-stockwork system located and hosted in the "roof-zone" and adjacent contact zone of a tonalite intrusion and overlying and adjacent carbonaceous shale sequences. The mine is one of many similar-style gold occurrences (see for example the Company's El Gualtal formalization project, press release October 2, 2019) located in the Company's "Southern Block" and in the prolific La Llanada goldfield. The mine operation comprises approximately 41 tunnels extending vertically over some 50 meters from the base of a steep hillside (see Figure 1). Ore is hand-selected, gold is coarse and free and recovered by gravity separation. Mining at La Esmeralda was suspended by regulatory authorities in 2016. There are no reliable records of previous production. In 2010 and 2011, AGA conducted geological mapping, grab and channel rock-chip sampling and ground geophysics at La Esmeralda. AGA collected 138 combined grab and rock-chip channel samples which returned a maximum of 133.5 grams per tonne gold (average of 4.5 grams per tonne gold; lowest results at below laboratory detection limit). AGA's best underground rock-chip channel sample results from La Esmeralda are as follows:
2.0 Meters at 48.1 grams per tonne gold
2.0 Meters at 23.0 grams per tonne gold
2.0 Meters at 12.8 grams per tonne gold
2.0 Meters at 12.7 grams per tonne gold
1.2 Meters at 21.6 grams per tonne gold
1.0 Meters at 39.4 grams per tonne gold
1.0 Meters at 17.0 grams per tonne gold
0.2 Meters at 65.1 grams per tonne gold
Figure 1
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Induced polarization (IP) data collected across La Esmeralda has revealed a clearly-defined continuous chargeability anomaly of more than 50 mV/V, extending for more than 400 meters along-strike, over a vertical distance of approximately 150 meters and with an average section width of 50 meters. The chargeability anomaly is located in carbonaceous sediments, which hosts sulphide-rich, vein-stockwork style gold mineralization and is always located on the southern side of a very high-resistive zone, which correlates spatially with the majority of underground mines and gold mineralized veins hosted in tonalite (see Figure 2). The Company considers both the chargeable vein-stockwork zone and the resistive tonalite-hosted vein-zone to be promising initial drill targets.
Figure 2
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"This formalization initiative follows in style and substance the Company's El Gualtal agreement which was executed in October of last year and is the second such agreement the Company has signed in Nariño and in the impressive La Llanada gold district," said Tim Coughlin, Royal Road's President and CEO. "Once again, we are immensely proud to be executing quality agreements with local stakeholders which are designed to benefit the Company, the informal miners, the community, the environment and the Colombian government."
Highlights of the Agreements
The following is a brief summary of some of the key aspects of the Agreements:
Formalization Agreement
- Company to return a specific area within the Concession and permit a new mining concession over such area (the La Esmeralda Concession) to be issued to La Esmeralda for the benefit of informal miners and in order for mining to resume at La Esmeralda
- La Esmeralda to satisfy requirements of Colombian mining regulation including in respect to environment and workplace health and safety
- La Esmeralda to allow ENC to have access at any time and to assist with sustaining social licenses at the project and elsewhere in the district
Option Agreement
- ENC has the right to earn 70% of La Esmeralda Concession by completing a minimum 3000 meters of drilling, underground sampling and an internal feasibility study with respect to the La Esmeralda Concession within five years of the date on which La Esmeralda is registered as the owner of the La Esmeralda Concession
- La Esmeralda's 30% interest in La Esmeralda Concession to be free-carried through to commercial production and at such point to be converted to a 30% net profit interest
- La Esmeralda to receive an additional 5% net profit interest royalty from mine production within a 100 meter buffer zone around the La Esmeralda Concession and within the Concession HH2-12001X
Royalty Agreement
- From the time of granting of the La Esmeralda Concession, ENC to receive a royalty of 3% of the doré extracted from the La Esmeralda Concession payable in kind on a quarterly basis
- In-case ENC assists in increasing production at the La Esmeralda Concession beyond the average production calculated from the first two quarters of mine production, ENC may increase the royalty to be received by a further 1%
- The royalty is payable until the earlier of ENC relinquishing its entire interest in Concession HH2-12001X, ENC exercising its option to earn 70% and delivering notice to La Esmeralda that it intends to commence mine construction, ENC developing and securing to its satisfaction a global JORC-compliant resource on a single stand-alone project of no less than 3 million ounces gold on the HH2-12001X Concession area surrounding the La Esmeralda Concession
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
The information in this news release was compiled, reviewed and verified by Dr. Tim Coughlin, BSc (Geology), MSc (Exploration and Mining), PhD (Structural Geology), FAusIMM, President and CEO of Royal Road Minerals Ltd and a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Royal Road Minerals employees are instructed to follow standard operating and quality assurance procedures intended to ensure that all sampling techniques and sample results meet international reporting standards. More information can be found on Royal Road Minerals web site at www.royalroadminerals.com
Quality Assurance and Quality Control:
The following information was made available to the Company by AngloGold Ashanti.
Sample preparation and analyses are conducted according to standard industry procedures. Rock samples are crushed, split and pulverized prior to analysis of Gold by fire assay and Atomic Absorption and multi-elements by ICP-AES and ICP-MS after four acid digestion. Stream sediment samples are sieved to -200 mesh and analyzed for Gold by fire assay and ICP AES and multi-elements by ICP-AES and ICP-MS after aqua regia digestion. Analytical performance is monitored by means of certified reference materials (CRMs), coarse blanks, coarse and pulp duplicate samples. Surface samples have been prepared, for the most part, in ALS Chemex preparation lab in Colombia and analyses have been completed in ALS Chemex Lima.
Cautionary statement:
This news release contains certain statements that constitute forward-looking information and forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws (collectively, "forward-looking statements") describing the Company's future plans and the expectations of its management that a stated result or condition will occur. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company, or developments in the Company's business or in the mineral resources industry, to differ materially from the anticipated results, performance, achievements or developments expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include all disclosure regarding possible events, conditions or results of operations that is based on assumptions about, among other things, future economic conditions and courses of action, and assumptions related to government approvals, and anticipated costs and expenditures. The words "plans", "prospective", "expect", "intend", "intends to" and similar expressions identify forward looking statements, which may also include, without limitation, any statement relating to future events, conditions or circumstances. Forward-looking statements of the Company contained in this news release, which may prove to be incorrect, include, but are not limited to the Company's exploration plans.
The Company cautions you not to place undue reliance upon any such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they are made. There is no guarantee that the anticipated benefits of the Company's business plans or operations will be achieved. The risks and uncertainties that may affect forward-looking statements include, among others: economic market conditions, anticipated costs and expenditures, government approvals, and other risks detailed from time to time in the Company's filings with Canadian provincial securities regulators or other applicable regulatory authorities. Forward-looking statements included herein are based on the current plans, estimates, projections, beliefs and opinions of the Company management and the Company does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements should assumptions related to these plans, estimates, projections, beliefs and opinions change.
For further information please contact:
Dr. Timothy Coughlin
President and Chief Executive Officer
USA-Canada toll free 1800 6389205
+44 (0)1534 887166
+44 (0)7797 742800
info@royalroadminerals.com
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