Update
DRC arbitration and Supreme Court proceedings ongoing; gold equipment moved to Burkina Faso storage; Soma Gold planning El Limon restart.
- DRC asset sale price $20m
- Consideration already paid $5m
- Unpaid balance $15m
- Company's claimed entitlement from consideration paid $2.5m
- Damages claimed $2m
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Red Rock Resources Plc, the natural resource exploration and development company with interests in gold, base metals, battery metals, and hydrocarbons principally in Africa and Australia announces an update on the Company's arbitration and associated proceedings in the DRC further to its announcements of 15 January 2025, 29 January 2025, 31 March 2025 and 15th May 2025.
The Company has been conducting proceedings in the Cour de Cassation (Supreme Court) in support of and in parallel with its Arbitration. This course of proceeding is founded in the initial judgements obtained in 2022 confirming the Company's 50.1% joint venture interest in copper and cobalt assets near Kolwezi that had been without the Company's knowledge or consent the subject of a $20m sale ("Sale") to a third party ("Buyer"), and therefore its right to $2.5m of the $5m consideration already paid at the time of the action, plus $2m damages and interest ("Judgement"). The Arbitration was begun, with the Buyer a party, in order to confirm the Company's rights in relation to the $15m unpaid balance of the Sale.
The Company is now looking forward to the forthcoming publication of the Supreme Court judgement, and will update the market as this and other related events occur.
The Company's position is that the Sale was illegitimately carried out behind the Company's back, and significantly undervalued, by an order of magnitude, the assets. As an initial step the Company sought the Judgement, and has since taken additional actions to preserve and assert its rights.
2025 Developments
The Arbitrator, which had held initial arbitration sessions in 2022, summoned the parties to a meeting in January 2025 in order to seek a conclusion to proceedings, either by a settlement or by an award.
The Arbitrator indicated that he would find a judgement on certain matters by the Supreme Court of assistance, and in accordance with this the Company prioritised the conclusion of its proceedings (in relation to the enforceability of its original judgements) that were already with the court.
The current Supreme Court proceedings, where a judgement is in the course of issuance, is expected to give finality on key issues. Red Rock Chairman Andrew Bell comments: "We reiterate the confidence expressed in our announcements this year that the outcome of the litigation and arbitration will be a significant and positive event for the Company. Although winding up these matters has been much slower and much more time-consuming than the very speedy process envisaged in January, we do still expect this in the near-term. We have held back from updating earlier in the expectation that publication of an award would already have been made. The delay does not reflect anything other in our view than the delays that can be attendant on any court administrative process. The Management remains focussed on delivery of these results as expeditiously as possible."
OTHER DEVELOPMENTS
The Company notes that last week, having obtained duty exemption and customs clearance for gold testing and processing equipment in Burkina Faso, it removed the equipment to a storage site as it prepares a gold programme for exploration and then production at its Boulon licence, which is required to start within the next two months. An approach has been received for another Burkina licence, where due diligence is being carried out.
The Company notes the announcement by Soma Gold that it plans to restart operation of its gold production facilities at El Limon in Colombia by the end of the current month. Red Rock has a royalty over gold produced or treated through El Limon.
Otherwise, there are no material developments across our other activities which have remained on a slow track pending resolution of our claim in the DRC. A general review and assessment of gold opportunities is being prepared in order to set priorities among non-DRC operations. A further announcement will be made shortly when the Company has assessed the impact of the above and has considered its funding needs.
Cleaned text: letterheads, contacts and legal notices removed. View the original announcement ↗ · Company filings. Not investment advice.