Update and appointments

RNS Number : 1821G

Red Rock Resources plc

09 May 2011

 



RED ROCK RESOURCES PLC

Update and Appointments

Dated: 9 May 2011

Red Rock Resources plc ("Red Rock" or the "Company"), the gold mining and exploration company with projects in Kenya, and Colombia, and interests in steel feed, uranium, and rare earths reports on developments.

Appointments

The Company is pleased to announce appointments at its 24.7 per cent. associate Resource Star Limited (ASX: RSL) and in its Colombian operations.

RSL, the ASX listed uranium and specialty metals exploration company, has appointed Simon Heggen as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer as RSL moves to a new phase of its development on both the exploration and the corporate fronts. Simon Heggen brings with him over 25 years of Australian and international corporate and business development experience spent largely in the resource sector. Between 1995 and 2005, He was Group Manager Business Development at WMC Resources, the publicly listed company acquired by BHP Billiton. He has also worked at managerial and board level at other leading companies, including Boral, Wesfarmers, and Schroders Australia. Most recently he served as a director of Austock Corporate Finance from 2007 to 2009, focused on equity capital market and merger and acquisition transactions, and as director of a private corporate advisory company.

Andrew Bell, Red Rock's representative on the RSL board, will remain on the RSL Board as its chairman.

Richard Evans remains as a consultant and geological adviser to RSL, and will take up in addition a wider role within Red Rock as Chief Scientific Adviser. Mr Evans has a BSc degree in geology from the University of Melbourne and a postgraduate qualification in business studies. He is a Member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, with 25 years' experience in the mining industry.  He spent 18 years with WMC Limited in a variety of technical, commercial and managerial roles; including front-line exploration and production, project assessment and feasibility. This also included five years based in South Africa and Mozambique progressing WMC's Corridor Sands Project. Since 2009 he has worked with RSL as CEO and latterly as geological consultant.

The full text of the announcement is given at: http://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20110509/pdf/41yjl3hgg43ybs.pdf

In addition, the Company has engaged the services from 21^st May of Oscar Alvarado, initially as Chief Mining Operations and Development Officer. Sr Alvarado, who has dual Peruvian and Canadian nationality, will for an initial period be tasked with optimising the operations of the Company's 51% owned subsidiary Mineras Four Points SA (MFP) at El Limon and Machuca, through training, operational adjustments, and mechanization where appropriate, and putting in place management and systems appropriate to the Company's long-term development plans in South America. It is envisaged that Sr Alvarado will then move to a senior group-wide role.

Oscar Alvarado graduated with a BSc in Mining Engineering from the National University of Engineering in Peru, and later returned to the academic world to obtain an M.B.A. from Nova University in Florida, and an MSc in Mineral Economics from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, where he carried out further studies in metallurgy. He is a Member of the Canadian Institute of Mining, the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, and the South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.    

Sr Alvarado has 37 years of mining experience, beginning as a Mine Foreman, later a Mine Superintendent, and having his first Mine Manager's position in 1979 at Minas San Cristobal in El Salvador. In 1984-5 he was Project Manager on the design and construction of a 200 tpd mine-mill complex mining narrow high-grade gold veins in Choco, Colombia. He subsequently worked for 12 years for Noranda, Inc in Canada and Latin America, where he was Business Development Manager, for Placer Dome in South Africa, in a senior management post at Ok Tedi in Papua New Guinea, as a study manager for BHP-Billiton's Olympic Dam expansion, before a period at the World Bank/IFC. From 2007 to 2010 he was Technical Director at Kazakhmys plc, and from 2010 to 2011 Technical Director at Hochschild Mining plc based in Lima.

The appointment of Oscar Alvarado is an important step in the Company's programme of strengthening its technical and operational capabilities.

Kenya

Further metallurgical results on the Macalder tailings have been received from Amdel Laboratories in Perth and are being assessed by the Company's metallurgist.

The drill programme at Migori intensified despite the rains as each drill from overseas  arrived and was brought into operation. After 1,679m drilled in March, 3,481m were drilled in April and 1,637m in the first six days of May.

The current programme is expected to continue into July, and may be extended.  

Colombia

The Company has put in place new corporate management at Mineras Four Points SA since acquiring 51% in March 2011, and in conjunction with that management has made key staff changes at the mine. These changes have already yielded results, and the improvement is continuing. Daily throughput figures for tonnages continue to increase progressively as the mine and plant operations are improved, but are not yet at satisfactory levels.

Production of gold has been on a batch system, because of small volumes of material to date, and is mainly recent, because of replacement of a furnace. Some gold is held in concentrate, and figures for gold production on a daily basis are not yet available, but will be released as soon as a meaningful run of figures can be produced.

Click on, or paste the following link into your web browser, to view the associated PDF document.

 http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/1821G_-2011-5-9.pdf 

As noted above, the Company has engaged a highly qualified engineer and manager with experience in building and running high grade narrow vein gold mines and gold plants in South America to take immediate hands-on leadership of the process of management recruitment, workforce training, operation, and investment at the MFP mines.

Key investments - appointment at Jupiter Mines Ltd

The Company's key investment and former associated company, Jupiter Mines Ltd (ASX:JMS), where Red Rock continues to hold 74,200,832 shares, announced today the appointment of Richard Mehan as CEO and Managing Director.

Richard Mehan, an economics graduate from Monash University in Victoria, has over 25 years experience in the iron ore and coal sectors, and was most recently President and CEO Asia Pacific of Cliffs Natural Resources Pty Ltd. He was Managing Director and CEO of Portman Limited before its takeover by Cliffs Natural Resources Inc., an S&P 500 company, and was instrumental in transforming Portman into a profitable 9m tpa iron ore exporter through Esperance port. Most of the issues faced by JMS in developing its Mt Mason and Mt Ida iron ore projects (Red Rock has a 1.5% gross production royalty over Mt Ida) are similar to those faced by Portman at that time.

Previously Richard Mehan worked for 15 years for Rio Tinto in sales, marketing, business development, and logistics.   

The full text of the announcement is given at: http://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20110509/pdf/41yjl84k74m81p.pdf

Enquiries:

Enquiries:

Andrew Bell	0207 402 4580 or 07766 474849	Red Rock Resources plc	Chairman
Sandra Spencer	0207 402 4580 or 07757 660 798	Red Rock Resources plc	Public and Investor Relations
Peter Trevelyan-Clark/ Ben Jeynes	020 7444 0800	Religare Capital Markets	Nominated Adviser
Nick Emerson	01483 413500	Simple Investments Ltd	Broker

Updates on the Company's activities are regularly posted on its website, www.rrrplc.com.

 

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