London-listed Rome Resources, which has exploration assets in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has entered into an option agreement to acquire working interests in early-stage exploration licences in the Canadian province of New Brunswick, close to the Mount Pleasant deposit, hosting the Three Lakes and Schoullar Mountain projects.

The projects under the option cover over 109 km2 of exploration acreage to the east of Mount Pleasant, a mothballed legacy tungsten/molybdenum and tin/indium project in the southwestern part of New Brunswick, close to the US border.

The acreage lies only 40 km from the important deepwater Port of St John and the claims are situated in two areas.

Area 1, Three Lakes, consists of 75.3 km2 of mining claims along the crestal greisenised part of the Mount Douglas Granite, where numerous mineral showings principally for tin, tungsten and indium have been described.

Area 2, Schoullar Mountain, consists of 33.8 km2 of mining claims directly east of the Mount Pleasant mine, along the southern margin of the tin/molybdenum/tungsten/indium-bearing volcanic caldera and granite complex, where limited exploration has taken place to date.

Rome Resources says tin showings in Area 1 have been assayed at up to 1.4% tin from surface sampling.

The company says exploration of these two promising areas will take the form of further surface sampling, geophysical surveys and core drilling.

Within the Three Lakes project area are the Spruce Lake tin/tungsten/indium and Smith Lake tin projects, which are located in the highly evolved final phase of the Mount Douglas Granite.

The company says these potential deposits are associated with three terrane boundary crustal scale faults, providing long-lived mineralisation pathways.

Rome explains that multiple new greisen vein clusters have been identified that occur within a core 3.5km by 4.6 km zone of the final phase of the Mount Douglas Granite noting, however, the potential total linear southwest-northeast strike length of the feature is in the region of 15 km under licence to Rome.

The company adds that Area 2 is directly along geological strike from the Mount Pleasant mine and is particularly underexplored despite its location along the southern margin of the granite-caldera complex that hosts resources of a range of critical mineral deposits, including rare elements such as indium.

The company explains that New Brunswick launched its new Critical Minerals Strategy earlier in March, which the Canadian Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson said would “get shovels in the ground, new minerals to market and generate economic opportunity in the province”.

BACKGROUND

Rome says its board of directors considers this option to represent a low-cost, high-potential entry point into a region with a strong pedigree for critical mineral discoveries, including tin and tungsten.

The exercise of the option will be conditional on, inter alia, Rome Resources paying a modest and strategically structured total consideration of C$300 000, comprising a total of C$250 000 in new ordinary shares of 0.1p in the company and C$50 000 in cash, to be paid over the four years following the entering into of the option, although the consideration for the exercise of the option may be satisfied earlier at Rome’s discretion.

During the option period, Rome says it shall act as the operator of the licences and be responsible for carrying out exploration on the licences.

Following the completion of the exercise of the option and satisfaction of the associated payment obligations, Rome says it will have a 100% legal and beneficial interest in the licences comprising the projects and 97% of the net smelter return (NSR) on the future minerals produced within the licences, with the vendors of the projects retaining a royalty of 3% of the NSR.

In addition, thereafter Rome says it will gain the right of first refusal to buy 50% of the vendors’ retained royalty on the NSR through the payment of a cash amount of $1.5-million – or an equivalent mutually agreed amount of cash or new ordinary shares.

Rome says the board considers that this low-cost entry point reflects the early-stage nature of the projects and the company’s ability to leverage its network and credibility to secure early-mover advantage on highly prospective licences.

The company says this diversification aligns with its strategy to secure exposure to highly prospective critical mineral opportunities while maintaining its core commitment to advancing tin and copper resources at its flagship Bisie North project in the DRC.

Rome points out that the exploration programme in Canada is structured to ensure it does not detract from ongoing work programmes or the allocation of resources in the DRC.

Rome CEO Paul Barrett says this proposed strategic entry into Canada and the Appalachian Devonian tin granite plays provides the company with low-cost access to a highly prospective region which exhibits strong tin and other critical metal mineralisation in a mining-friendly Tier 1 jurisdiction.

He notes that the Three Lakes area is a late-phase tin granite-sourced prospect, similar to the Bisie North tin play in the DRC, but with additional tungsten, bismuth and indium potential.

“Importantly, this opportunity complements Bisie North, not only in the commodities it offers but also in timing.

“Planning of the work programme can take place while we await the assays from Bisie North which will feed into the updated mineral resource estimate for Kalayi, allowing for progress at both projects in parallel.

“This approach allows us to maintain focus on our core project in DRC, while positioning Rome for proposed long-term growth through diversification.”

Rome says a detailed technical review of the new projects under the option will be announced in due course.