Rome Resources Plc (AIM:RMR) CEO Paul Barrett talked with Proactive this week about the progress with the ongoing drilling programme at the Bisie North project, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Barrett highlighted that drilling is advancing well, with rigs currently operating at both the Kalayi and Mont Agoma prospects. He mentioned that approximately 30% of the drilling program is complete and emphasized that the company is seeing promising semi-quantitative results.
He also noted that the first batch of samples from the early drill holes has already been sent to the lab, with assays expected soon.
Proactive: Paul, very good to speak with you. You're out with an update on drilling at the Kalayi and Mont Agoma prospects at your Bisie North project in the DRC. How's it looking so far?
Paul Barrett: It's looking pretty good … it is going quite well in terms of the drilling production. We've now stepped up. We've got a fourth rig, which is just, in fact, the helicopter was working on getting that set up at Mont Agoma within the last couple of days.
So that should be drilling. We've got one active rig at the moment, and this last one is coming on at Mont Agoma. We’ve got two drilling on Kalayi. So, we’ve been doing quite well.
The progress is that we’re about a third of the way through the program. So it's going quite well.
We are seeing promising results, although they are semi-quantitative at the moment.
The first batch of samples from the first couple of holes is already at the lab, so we should see some official assays in the near future.
I think we'll probably put out another specific announcement about well results, rather than a general update, early next week once we get another couple of wells drilled.
The timing from here is that we'll still be drilling through the rest of October and all of November. That will pretty much get us to our target.
Proactive: You’ve said that you're going to be drilling through this month and November to get to your target. Can you tell us what the target is and what potential you're seeing at Bisie?
Paul Barrett: Well, the original plan, as we said at admission, is 3,000 meters of drilling. That's our initial target. Because we're seeing some good semi-quantitative indications, we might want to continue drilling.
The helicopter is on-site, the camp is active, and all the logistics are in place, so it makes sense to keep going if we can.
So, 3,000 meters is the minimum we need for resource reporting. But if we can, continuing to drill would be a smart move. So, it's a bit up in the air at the moment, but we're confident we'll have enough for our resource numbers.
It's tin, primarily, but copper is coming in quite strongly at Mont Agoma, so we will certainly report on both commodities early in 2025.
Proactive: Paul, I hope you'll keep us posted on the progress as results come in. Thank you for the update.