Ortac Resources Ltd (LON:OTC) said peer Premier African Minerals Limited's (LON:PREM) investment into private DRC focused group CASA Mining shows the growing interest in the City for gold exploration.
As reported on Tuesday, Premier paid, via a share placing, US$250,000 for a 4.5% interest in CASA, valuing the latter at US$5.57mln.
Following the announcement, Ortac subscribed for a further 62,500 shares in CASA for US$50,000 to maintain its holding at 19.5%
Ortac chief executive Vassilios Carellas said: "Ortac welcomes Premier as a fellow shareholder and we look forward to working together to support the management team at Casa as they advance the exciting Misisi gold project."
CASA has three mining licenses covering 133 sq km known as the Misisi project in the highly prospective South Kivu province in the eastern Congo gold belt of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
A scoping study at the most advanced Akyanga deposit has confirmed the potential viability of an 80,000 ounce of gold per year heap leach operation, with a total cash operating cost of US$628 per ounce based on current resources.
CASA now plans to plans to begin a 5,000 metre exploration program to validate what is a 3mln ounce potential target at Akyanga and issue an updated scoping study by the end of 2017.