Grade is king.

There’s no getting around it.

And Rome Resources has found high grade tin just eight kilometres away from the highest-grading tin mine in the world, Alphamin’s Mpama North mine in the North Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Now, the DRC is not for the faint-hearted.

But Rome is about to undergo something of a transformation as it arrives on AIM from Canada via a reversal into resources shell Pathfinder Minerals (PFP) . 

Now under a different set of rules to the Venture Exchange, the real movers and shakers behind the company can emerge from the shadows.

At front and centre is Klaus Eckhof, a man with considerable resources experience under his belt, and more pertinently, considerable resources experience in the DRC.

Eckhof it was who founded Moto Gold and took its inventory up to several million ounces of gold before selling on to what was then Randgold in one of those nice transactions in which both sides win.

Yes, the DRC’s hard. 

But Eckhoff has made it work before. And Randgold, now Barrick, continue to make it work.

Indeed, Eckhoff is only half-joking when he says that the DRC is actually easier to operate in than Australia because you don’t end up mired in interminable bureaucratic procedures and permitting delays. 

He has a track record in tin in the Congo, too.

Remember Alphamin, the owner of the world’s highest grading tin mine? – Eckhof was involved with that too – he found the mine, and ran the company for some years, before recognizing that his skill set is in discovery rather than operations. 

Which is why he is back now with Rome Resources, to do it all again.

He’s got the deposit, he’s got the local knowledge, and he’s got the grade.

Now he’s got the vehicle all set to go on Aim, too, cashed up and ready to drill.

At this point, there are plenty of grounds for optimism.

The soil anomalies that Rome will be targeting are three times bigger than the initial targets that Eckhof identified at Mpama North. So far, so good.

Some drilling has already taken place, and the initial intercepts have been highly encouraging. 

At Mont Agoma the company hit 0.43% tin over 16 metres and 0.38% tin over 9.6 metres. There was also significant base metals mineralization, consisting primarily of zinc and copper, with some silver too, inside what amounted to a 250 metre-wide sulphide zone. 

And at Kalayi the company hit 1.06% tin over 12.6 metres, including a spectacular 11.7% over 0.5 metres. 

So, although it’s early days, there’s plenty working in Rome’s favour at the moment. 

After all, some mines struggle to get material up to the 1% mark. To get an intercept of more than ten times that is certainly grounds for undertaking further work. 

Accordingly, major drill campaigns will get underway, following the completion of the Aim reversal. 

The plan is to have two separate resources by the end of the fourth quarter, one at each of Kalayi and at Mont Agoma. 

“The drill pads are already set,” says Eckhof.

Meanwhile, the tin bulls are gaining ground, noting that Indonesian supply is significantly curtailed, leaving the Chinese significantly short. After a period of post-covid de-stocking, re-stocking is underway, and a new type of battery, the sodium-ion tin battery looks set to gain market share. 

So, the friends and family that have put around £1m into Rome have some justification in feeling that they’re onto a good thing.

Will it be bigger than Alphamin? 

That’s a bit of a stretch at the moment, but who knows?

The company is coming to the market at 1.5% of Alphamin’s current value. 

If that gap were to close by just a few percentage points as further similarities are demonstrated, then the potential uplift in share price could be huge. 

But many industry watchers in any case think the company won’t be around that long – a bidder will swoop in and, against the backdrop of a strengthened tin price, table a tasty offer.