Rockfire Resources (ROCK) , a gold and critical minerals explorer, confirmed the presence of high-grade germanium and elevataed gallium in recent drill core from its wholly-owned Molaoi polymetallic project in Greece.
Rockfire reported germanium grades between 9.0 and 40.0 g/t with an average of 23.7 g/t Ge from 7 holes, with the highest individual assay being 73.8g/t Ge in hole MO_GTK_003A.
Meanwhile, gallium grades between 9.7 and 19.0 g/t were intersected with an average of 15.3 g/t Ga, with the highest individual assay being 33.3g/t Ga in hole MO_GTK_003A.
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A highly positive result from Molaoi, confirming the long-speculated presence of high-grade germanium as well as gallium, adding significant value to the Greek project's economics. Rockfire sees an average of 39% uplift in the zinc-equivalent grade of the Molaoi core as a result of the discovery.
Rockfire's initial analysis for germanium in holes MO_GTK_001 through MO_GTK_007 failed to detect any of the critical metal, which was unexpected given germanium had been identified in historical drill core. Today's announcement put doubts to rest that there is high-grade germanium, in addition to high grade gallium at Molaoi. Rockfire used a different analytical method to detect germanium associated with the high-grade zinc.
The above table shows the original zinc eq values reported previously by Rockfire, along with the revised zinc eq values as a result of adding germanium and gallium.
Germanium currently sells for US$ 2.75m (GBP£ 2.16m) per tonne. Germanium and gallium are both included on the US and EU lists of critical minerals, owing to geological scarcity. Gallium is also included on the UK list of critical minerals. The metals have become targets of resource nationalism, with China recently announcing restrictions on export of both gallium and germanium products, citing national security reasons.
Earlier this month, Rockfire reported more high-grade zinc, silver and lead at Molaoi. The project continues to see positive results that exceed expectations and demonstrate the high quality and grades of its polymetallic deposit, now adding germanium and gallium to the mix.
Investors have rewarded the good results from Greece, pushing ROCK shares 74% higher year-to-date. Shares jumped 3.45% on today's announcement.
In addition to the strong zinc continuity found and the confirmed presence of high-grade germanium and gallium, particularly encouraging is the positioning of the deposits, which tracks the findings of the Greek government from the 1980s. Furthermore, the minimum width for mechanised mining of 2m is still being achieved or exceeded, which is a critical aspect of mine design and planning.
Today's news continues to support Rockfire's steady timeline to production. Based on results so far, we expect a resource upgrade soon, followed by a feasibility study later this year.
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