1 July 2024
Golden Metal Resources
plc
("Golden Metal" or the
"Company")
Nuclear Fusion Collaboration
Agreement
Golden Metal Resources plc*
(LON:GMET, OTCQB:GMTLF), a strategic development and mineral exploration company
focused on Nevada, USA, is pleased to announce an update on its
Memorandum of Understanding ("MOU")[1] with
Oxford Sigma Limited ("Oxford Sigma"), a nuclear fusion technology
company based in Oxfordshire, UK.
*Golden Metal
is to change its name to Guardian Metal Resources plc. Formal
papers have been submitted and the name change confirmation is
awaited from Companies House. The Company will confirm when this
process is complete. The stock codes will remain as LON:GMET and
OTXQB:GMTLF.
HIGHLIGHTS:
§ Further to
the MOU announced by the Company on 24 July 2023, Golden Metal and
Oxford Sigma have agreed to co-fund a research project titled
"Materials Selection for Fusion Breeder Blankets" (the "Project")
which forms part of Oxford Sigma's collaboration with the UK Atomic
Energy Authority (UKAEA), which is also providing partial funding
for the Project.
§ The main
goal of the Project is to quantify the use of tungsten and other
critical metals within the fusion process. It is expected that
results from the Project will highlight the extraordinary future
demand the development of nuclear fusion would create for
tungsten.
§ The
anticipated demand for tungsten in nuclear fusion, added to the
growing requirements of the defence and industrial sectors, would
add a further dramatic step change in the significance of tungsten
for all industry participants and notably benefit Golden Metal as
100% owners of the Pilot Mountain Project, which is believed to be
the largest undeveloped tungsten project on US soil.
Oliver Friesen, CEO of Golden Metal,
commented:
"Golden Metal continues to lead critical minerals development
in the London market with its objective to become a leading
provider of critical metal resources in the USA.
"Alongside the significant amount of exploration and
development work that is currently ongoing across our Pilot
Mountain and Garfield projects, it is important that we continue to
broaden our understanding as to what the major future demand
drivers for tungsten will be.
"While tungsten usage within the defence space is currently at
the forefront given the current global geopolitical situation, we
have been working with Oxford Sigma since the signing of our MOU to
better understand the importance of tungsten within what is likely
to be one, if not the, most important future energy technologies
currently being developed.
"While initial indications are that the future demand
requirements for tungsten within fusion are considerable, to date
no one has done the work to quantify this. The Project represents
the first time this work is being undertaken and we are very
excited to be involved.
"Almost all tungsten stakeholders with whom I have engaged
over the years are well aware of the use of tungsten within nuclear
fusion, however, there exists a knowledge gap due to no one having
previously quantified future outcomes.
"With the results of the Project in hand, and the expected
publication of the Project outcomes, we will be much better
equipped as a company as we look to be a leader in the nuclear
fusion metal supply space."
FURTHER INFORMATION
Golden Metal is co-sponsoring an
internship fusion engineer from Oxford Sigma to complete a fusion
energy research project overseen by Oxford Sigma and based within
the world-leading academic ecosystem in Oxford.
The Project will develop a detailed
scoring matrix for fusion-relevant materials in breeder blankets,
with a relative score given for their independent tolerance to each
of the challenging fusion characteristics; thermal, magnetic,
radiation and corrosion.
Due to its unique metallurgical
properties, tungsten is expected to be the lead candidate for
first-wall and shielding components within the nuclear fusion
process.
The results of the Project will be
submitted to a peer reviewed leading academic journal.
The findings will be used to
generate a more accurate value of tungsten consumption required for
commercial fusion power plants, which will feed directly into
Golden Metal's future supply dynamics and ongoing conversations.
They will also position Golden Metal and Oxford Sigma as
industry leaders in understanding the supply needs for tungsten in
the fusion industry and enable capacity and timescale strategy
planning to develop further.
The results are also expected to
highlight future fusion demand for tungsten globally, with
consequent upward movements in its commodity price, which will
encourage and underpin the future development of the Company's
Pilot Mountain project.
Initial results from the Project are
expected in approximately the next 2-3 months.
Forward Looking Statements
This announcement contains
forward-looking statements relating to expected or anticipated
future events and anticipated results that are forward-looking in
nature and, as a result, are subject to certain risks and
uncertainties, such as general economic, market and business
conditions, competition for qualified staff, the regulatory process
and actions, technical issues, new legislation, uncertainties
resulting from potential delays or changes in plans, uncertainties
resulting from working in a new political jurisdiction,
uncertainties regarding the results of exploration, uncertainties
regarding the timing and granting of prospecting rights,
uncertainties regarding the timing and granting of regulatory and
other third party consents and approvals, uncertainties regarding
the Company's or any third party's ability to execute and implement
future plans, and the occurrence of unexpected
events.
Actual results achieved may vary
from the information provided herein as a result of numerous known
and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors.
For further information visit
www.goldenmetalresources.com
or contact the following:
Golden Metal Resources plc
Oliver Friesen (CEO)
|
Tel: +44 (0)
20 7583 8304
|
Cairn Financial Advisers LLP
Nominated Adviser
Sandy Jamieson/Jo Turner/Louise
O'Driscoll
|
Tel: +44 20 7213 0880
|
Shard Capital Partners LLP
Lead Broker
Damon Heath/Erik Woolgar
|
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7186 9000
|
First Equity Limited
Broker
Jonathan Brown/Jason
Robertson
|
Tel: +44 20 7374 2212
|
|
|
THE
PROJECTS
Pilot Mountain Project
The Pilot Mountain project is
an advanced exploration and mineral resource definition stage
project located in Mineral County in western Nevada.
The project covers an area of 14.80 km2 (3,904.1 acres)
and is located 200km southeast of Reno and 18km east
of Mina, Nevada. It is well situated for the supply of power,
water and skilled labour and proximity to transport infrastructure
in Mineral County and is centred around four existing
mineral deposits: Garnet; Good Hope; Gunmetal and Desert Scheelite,
all of which possess significant skarn-style
tungsten-copper-silver-zinc mineralisation. The Pilot
Mountain project consists of 176 active lode mining claims and
4 filed mill site claims. The four mill site claims filed at the
former Dunham mill site have secure access to groundwater supply
sufficient for the proposed project.
Garfield Project
The Garfield Project is an exciting
copper-gold-silver prospect consisting of 65 lode mining claims
covering 5.4 km2 (1,338 acres) located in Mineral
County, Nevada, approximately 14km due east of the town
of Hawthorne and 120km due west-northwest
of Tonopah. Exploration to date has included detailed
geochemical sampling and follow up analysis which highlighted the
presence of both porphyry and skarn-type mineralisation and
alteration at the 'High-Grade Zone'. Further to this, mapping,
prospecting and rock sampling was recently completed with results
confirming presence of high-grade copper, silver and gold
mineralisation as well as leading to the bedrock discovery of the
Pamlico Au Zone with individual rock samples up to 18.35g/t Au,
1,225g/t Ag & 1.89% Cu. Following this, geochemical analysis of
the full suite of data confirmed the strong presence of porphyry
style mineralisation across the Project, as well as potentially
overprinting epithermal style mineralisation leading to increased
gold-silver prospectivity.
Kibby Basin Lithium
Project
The Kibby Basin Project covers
two claim packages which are prospective for lithium brine
mineralisation. The southern claim package is less than 250m from a
2022 drillhole which returned a significant interval (169m) of
lithium brine mineralisation which was determined to be open in all
directions. The Project is less than 5km to the southeast of the
Company's flagship Pilot Mountain Project.
Golconda Summit Project
Golden Metal is the operator of the
Golconda Summit project, which is held under an earn-in right to
acquire up to 100 per cent. of the project from the mineral claim
owner pursuant to an option agreement. The Golconda Summit project
is an exploration stage gold and silver project located
in Humboldt County and situated at the confluence of the
Getchell and Battle
Mountain - Eureka metallogenic trends, and consists
of 44 lode mining claims, covering a total area of approximately
3.22 km2 (795.4 acres) located approximately 27km east
of Winnemucca.
Stonewall Project
The Stonewall project is an
exploration stage gold-silver property prospective for epithermal
gold-silver mineralisation. The property consists of 19 lode mining
claims covering 1.59 km2 (392.5 acres) located on the
northern flank of Stonewall Mountain, on the western edge of
the Nellis Airforce Range Restricted Access Area, in Nye
County, Nevada, approximately 24km south-east of the historic gold
mining town of Goldfield and 60km due south
of Tonopah.