Rome Resources
'Large-scale, High-value copper-tin-zin-silver system'
Good Afternoon Team.
The world around is surrounded by metals. Your copper kettle. Your tin can.
Your silver candlestick. Your zinc batteries.
Power grids, solder, solar panels, energy storage - the investing community is waking up to the fact that the entirety of the modern world is built upon metals - and luckily for Rome, it has plenty.
Despite the muted reaction to the recent RNS, we are one step closer to proving the system:
MADD018 @ Mont Agoma delivers
62.25m cumulative higher-grade zone at 0.61% Cu… within
a broader 148m intercept averaging 0.35% Cu.
Before we go any further, I want you to take a moment to consider just how far 148 metres is. It’s the equivalent of swimming more than seven consecutive laps in your local 20m pool. It’s roughly halfway up the Eiffel Tower, 1.5 times the height of Niagara Falls or a little longer than the wingspan of a Boeing 747.
It’s massive.
And it’s ours.
Remember, this is a step-out hole - designed to better understand the mineralisation of the system. It was unlikely to match the grades of earlier holes - but now we are drilling deeper into the core of the system.
And critically, this hole is hosted in a sulphide system. These tend to be processed via floatation and smelting, which is up-front capex heavy but much more cost-effective over the long run if you have a sufficiently large deposit when economies of scale take over.
This is important because sulphides - while they tend to be much lower grade - are almost always larger and deeper than other deposit types.
The other key factor to consider is that sulphide ores generally have much higher recovery rates, which compensates for lower grades - and they’re also usually more uniform, making mine planning easier. Copper concentrate from sulphides is also more widely traded, with more stable prices.
So there’s that.
And it’s not even the best intercept right now - next hole MADD024 identified visible tin across a 40m interval and an associated visible copper zone spanning a massive 179 metres.
For reference, #24 is 70 metres beneath the earlier hole MADD012, which reported a c40m wide zone of tin with zones of tin grading at between 0.1-0.3% tin.
This is the one to watch.
Because the entire tin model is predicated on there being higher grade tin at depths. Visuals (and XRF readings) support this theory, and I guess we’ll know soon if the model checks out.
As a reminder, previous drilling at Mont Agoma identified a significant sulphide mineralised system over a width of between 200 and 250 metres. Tin mineralisation was present in all drill holes.
The mineralisation also remains open to the northwest, to the southeast, and at depth — indicating significant potential for further discoveries.
Previous results from priority samples have defined high-grade polymetallic mineralisation at the upper levels and suggest high-grade tin mineralisation at deeper levels. Key results include 11.25 meters @ 0.51% Sn and include 2.25 meters @ 1.06% Sn from 5.75 meters in hole MADD004.
Significant copper mineralisation was found with 41 meters @ 3.52% Cu from 139 metres, including 13.15 metres at 7.8% Cu from 143.85 meters in hole MADD010A. Silver assays revealed 15.15 metres at 57.74 g/t Ag from 143.85 metres in the same hole, while zinc mineralization showed 160.5 metres at 3.3% Zn, including 90 metres at 4.17% Zn from 77.5 metres in hole MADD002.
The equivalent copper grades for the zinc intercepts would equate to 90m at 1.2% Cu and 25.4m at 4.1% Cu.
The scale and continuity of the tin, copper, zinc and silver mineralisation evidences the view that tin mineralisation identified within broad zones increases at depth.
CEO Paul Barrett notes that ‘the confirmation of 148m of copper mineralisation at Mont Agoma is a major milestone in defining the potential scale of this system…mineralisation remains open along strike and at depth, with extensions of 1,000m northward providing further potential upside for scale.’
Let’s sum up Mont Agoma quickly:
High-grade polymetallic mineralisation has been identified over a 500m geological strike length through drilling to date. The deposit remains open for more than 1km to the northwest, as well as at depth and to the southeast.
High-grade copper and zinc mineralisation extends across a 200m width and reaches depths exceeding 200m below the surface, presenting significant open-pit resource potential.
Copper mineralisation is more dominant to the northwest, while zinc is predominant to the southeast of the current drill area. This pattern aligns with a 2,000m copper-in-soil anomaly that remains open for an additional 1,000m to the north, and a zinc anomaly extending 1,000m further south.
Tin mineralisation is intensifying with depth, supporting the zonation model that predicts high-grade tin at greater depths.
Cassiterite (tin) has been identified within a 40m interval in the latest drill hole, MADD024. Additionally, minor anomalous tin was detected at a shallower level in MADD018, providing strong evidence of increasing tin potential at depth.
High-grade silver has been reported throughout the system, particularly in zones associated with tin and copper mineralization.
Detailed structural logging of drill core has been completed, confirming that mineralisation occurs within a fold structure plunging less than 30 degrees to both the north and south from the central drilling area.
Or - bottom line - you have copper and zinc dominating at upper levels while tin grades strengthen at depth - and silver throughout.
There’s high grade zinc over the entire 500m drilled strike - improving towards the South, while the copper continues to the north. Drilling also confirms an increase in both commodities to the northwest and southeast.
All we need now is the tin grades.
Remember, the same as Alphamin (4%) would be amazing. But 1% tin would still be very attractive - add in all the copper, silver and zinc by-credits…
Where next for Rome Resources?
Deeper drilling for that higher grade tin is ongoing. Additional extension drilling continues to further test continuity of the high-grade copper-tin-zinc-silver system. All four rigs are going at Mont Agoma.
At Kalayi, further assays are pending - where Rome is close to a maiden inferred mineral resource estimate. Remember, tin is now over $30,000 per ton, copper is rocketing and silver may be about to squeeze.
At both prospects, metallurgical studies have started to ensure maximum recoveries of all commodities identified - polymetallics can make for fun flowsheets.
Of course, even though operations remain unaffected by the ongoing unrest near Goma, the reality is that many investors will be nervous.
But the regional volatility is part and parcel of the investment case. The DRC has now offered the US terms for protection, centered around access to critical minerals, infrastructure development, and security cooperation.
The DRC plans to grant US companies extraction and export rights to ensure a stable supply chain for the superpower’s defense and technology sectors.
Additionally, the DRC is offering operational control of the Banana Deep-Water Port to US firms and is open to collaborating with the US on establishing a joint strategic mineral stockpile.
On the military front, the proposal includes training and equipping the Congolese Armed Forces to protect mineral supply routes from foreign-backed militant groups, granting the US access to military bases in key zones to safeguard strategic resources, and replacing ineffective UN peacekeeping operations with direct US-DRC security cooperation.
There is perhaps a sense that if the Chinese don’t protect the DRC, the country will go elsewhere and play both parties off against each other. The trade war is everywhere.
Germany and the UK have both suspended aid to Rwanda - the pressure is on.
And for some peace of mind, the cyclists who just took part in the Tour du Rwanda have told the BBC that they ‘felt safe’ despite concerns over security at this year's race and passing within 20km of Goma.
Get peace.
Get higher depth, higher grade tin.
And recover!