Royal Road JV wins bid for Saudi exploration licence

Royal Road Minerals (TSXV: RYR) says its Saudi Arabian joint venture vehicle has won preferred bidder status for the Jabal Sahabiyah exploration licence located in Asir province.

The JV, Royal Roads Arabia, was established on a 50/50 basis with Saudi investment holding company MSB to explore for copper and gold in the kingdom. Royal Road is operator of the JV, which has submitted exploration licence applications over certain areas of interest.

The Jabal Sahabiyah licence covers 284 sq. km. It was discovered as a result of regional mapping by Riofinex in the late 1970s. The prospect is located in the Nabitah-Tathlith belt and consists of copper-zinc-lead mineralized gossans and vein-gold occurrences hosted in greenschist and amphibolite facies meta-sedimentary and granitoid rocks.

Twenty shallow percussion drill holes (totalling 617.5 metres) were drilled into one of the gossan occurrences by Riofinex, with best results being 14 metres at 0.6% copper and 5.1% zinc and 6.5 metres at 0.9% copper and 0.6% zinc, both from surface.

“We are grateful to the MIMR for granting us this opportunity at Jabal Sahabiyah, and we are eager to get started. Over 40 years have lapsed since exploration work was conducted at the prospect area and ore deposit studies, surface and subsurface exploration techniques have advanced significantly over that period,” Tim Coughlin, Royal Road CEO, said in a press release.

The licensing round for Jabal Sahabiyah was announced by Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources (MIMR) in early 2023, and proposals were submitted by August, the same month the JV vehicle was created.

According to Royal Road, the submissions were “appraised on merit and required the preferred bidder to demonstrate skill-relevant and suitably qualified management and technical personnel, access to sufficient resources, and to prove high-level performance and a commitment to the principles of sustainability.”

It added that specific assessment criteria included such aspects as proposed exploration work program, exploration spend, technical expertise and social impact management plan.

The company plans to begin exploration, mapping and sampling activities shortly.

As the preferred bidder, Royal Road will be granted the Jabal Sahabiyah licence subject to the payment of a performance financial guarantee (to be agreed with MIMR) and the satisfaction of certain legal and regulatory requirements.

The licence will have an initial term of five years, with an option to renew every further five years for a total of 15 years. RRA has committed to spending at least US$5.5 million (20.65 million Saudi Riyal) over the first five years.

Shares of Royal Road Minerals surged nearly 16% by the end of the trading day to 11¢. The company has a market capitalization of $26.5 million.