Rome Resources Finalizes Maiden Resource Estimate Ahead of October 2025 Delivery & Tin's Supply Deficit Intensifies

• Tin plays a critical role in global electrification, with solder demand from electric vehicles, semiconductors, and solar panels driving a widening supply deficit. Industry forecasts indicate shortfalls of around 100,000 tonnes per annum by 2030, underscoring tin’s status as a non-substitutable critical mineral.
• Rome Resources’ near-term catalyst is the maiden mineral resource estimate for the Kalayi and Mont Agoma prospects, expected by the end of October 2025, which represents a binary inflection point that could position the company as a credible tin contender in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
• The company holds a strategic proximity advantage, with its assets located just 8 kilometers from Alphamin’s Mpama North, the world’s highest-grade tin mine, benefiting from proven geological continuity potential and access to established infrastructure corridors.
• Its management team brings strong pedigree, including the original discoverers of Alphamin, which significantly reduces exploration risk and execution uncertainty through a demonstrated track record in the same geological setting.
• For investors, high-grade, near-infrastructure projects like Rome’s, with strategic exposure to tin’s structural scarcity, align with capital rotation trends toward battery and energy transition metals, offering compelling asymmetric risk-adjusted upside.

Tin's Underrated Critical Mineral Status

Tin's evolution from a niche soldering metal to a core enabler of electrification has redefined its strategic importance in global commodity markets. The metal plays an essential role in electronics and renewable technologies, with demand expected to surge as electric vehicle adoption and solar panel deployment accelerate through 2030.

Supply, however, remains structurally constrained across all major producing regions. Southeast Asia's declining ore grades, regulatory uncertainty in key jurisdictions, and limited pipeline of new high-grade projects have created persistent supply tightness. Indonesia's regulatory crackdown in October 2025 added fresh constraints to an already tight market, while Myanmar's 2023 export disruptions, though since normalized by mid-2025, demonstrated the market's vulnerability to regional policy shifts. Industry forecasts suggest a supply shortfall of 100,000 tonnes per annum by 2030, with few major new mines expected to commence production before 2027.

The market has consistently underestimated the scarcity of shovel-ready tin projects globally, particularly those situated outside China and Southeast Asia. This supply-demand imbalance is driving renewed institutional focus on frontier jurisdictions like the Democratic Republic of Congo, where geological continuity with proven, high-grade assets presents compelling risk-adjusted opportunities for new discoveries.

The Company Highlight: Rome's Maiden Resource Estimate as a Defining Moment

As of Rome Resources' October 2025 announcement, the company was finalizing its maiden mineral resource estimate for the Kalayi and Mont Agoma prospects, with publication expected by end-October 2025. For institutional investors, this milestone represents a transition from exploration concept to quantifiable resource base, providing the first comprehensive test of the company's geological model and potential project economics.

The mineral resource estimate outcome will establish foundational valuation benchmarks such as enterprise value per resource tonne and provide the technical framework for scoping studies and preliminary net present value modelling. Historical market data indicates that maiden resource releases often drive meaningful re-ratings when results confirm continuity, grade, and scale consistent with or exceeding initial drilling intercepts.

Chief Executive Officer Paul Barrett engaged MSA Group to complete the resource calculation, a consultancy with direct experience on Alphamin Resources and comprehensive knowledge of the geological setting. The resource estimate will cover three distinct metal systems across the project portfolio, with Kalayi focused on tin mineralisation while Mont Agoma encompasses copper, tin, and zinc.

The maiden resource represents a critical baseline from which future expansion can be measured. Rome Resources Chief Executive Officer Paul Barrett emphasized the comparability to Alphamin's geological setting:

"Clearly we are behind them because they're producing, but it's going to be a very similar story following through."

The company plans to release an updated resource estimate in September incorporating additional drilling and assay results from ongoing campaigns, suggesting a phased approach to resource expansion as geological understanding evolves.

Geological Context: Proximity to the World's Richest Tin Mine

Rome Resources operates in a proven geological corridor, with strategic positioning that offers both technical validation and potential infrastructure advantages. Rome's Kalayi and Mont Agoma prospects are located just 8 kilometers from Alphamin Resources' Mpama North mine, a globally recognised benchmark for high-grade tin mining operations. Mpama North has historically operated at an average grade of approximately 3.6 percent tin, roughly ten times the global average, and maintains annual production capacity exceeding 12,000 tonnes of tin concentrate with industry-leading operating margins.

In 2025, Alphamin Resources entered into a majority partnership with Abu Dhabi IR, representing a significant change in ownership structure that brings new capital and strategic backing to the region's tin operations. This development underscores the continued institutional interest in the Democratic Republic of Congo's tin endowment and validates the jurisdiction's strategic importance to global supply chains.

Rome's initial drilling at Kalayi has intercepted 12.5 meters at 1.06 percent tin, with individual zones peaking at 11.7 percent tin, suggesting comparable mineralisation styles to Mpama's structurally controlled, vein-hosted tin systems. Mont Agoma exhibits additional polymetallic potential, with drilling results including 41 meters at 3.52 percent copper and 160.5 meters at 3.3 percent zinc, reflecting a complex hydrothermal system analogous to volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits observed elsewhere in the Kibaran Belt.

In June 2025, the company announced a major tin intersection beyond the previously defined geochemical anomaly zone, demonstrating the potential for mineralisation to extend beyond initial target areas. This discovery supports management's expectation that the maiden resource will establish a baseline subject to expansion through continued drilling.

Strategic and Economic Positioning: Leveraged to Tin's Structural Scarcity

Tin's scarcity value is amplified by its critical role in energy transition supply chains and extremely limited substitution potential across its primary applications. With only a handful of primary producers concentrated in China, Indonesia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Peru, the global tin market remains particularly vulnerable to regional supply disruptions and regulatory shifts.

Rome Resources' focus on high-grade, potentially low-cost deposits in the Democratic Republic of Congo positions the company to benefit directly from this structural imbalance. Historical estimates suggest operating costs in the region are 20 to 30 percent lower than comparable peer jurisdictions due to competitive labour rates and lower energy costs, while proximity to established infrastructure corridors may reduce capital intensity requirements for future development.

If the upcoming mineral resource estimate confirms grade and continuity comparable to early drilling intercepts, Rome could achieve an all-in sustaining cost position among the lowest quartile globally. This potential cost competitiveness offers significant leverage to tin prices, which remain supported by structural supply constraints and accelerating demand from electrification applications.

Management and Execution Capability: Proven Discovery Track Record

Institutional capital typically applies significant valuation discounts to early-stage exploration companies until management credibility and discovery track record demonstrably mitigate geological and execution risk. Rome Resources distinguishes itself through a leadership team with proven success in the identical geological terrain and mineralisation style the company is now targeting.

Mark Gasson, Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Executive Chairman, previously discovered 250,000 tonnes of high-grade tin at Alphamin's Bisie project, a direct geological and operational analogue to Rome's current exploration model. Jamie Anderson, Exploration Manager, played a key technical role in defining Alphamin's tin resource through successive drilling campaigns. Klaus Eckhof, Strategic Advisor, is widely recognised for founding Moto Goldmines and Alphamin Resources, both of which delivered substantial investor returns through disciplined exploration and development execution.

Financial Strength & Funding Position: Capitalised for Discovery

In connection with its 26 July 2024 admission to the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange, Rome completed a £4 million capital raise allocated to fund drilling campaigns and resource definition work. In the current capital markets environment, where early-stage exploration financing has become increasingly selective and risk premiums remain elevated, this fundraising success signaled investor confidence in management's technical thesis and institutional validation of the project's discovery potential.

Funds were primarily allocated to completing the maiden mineral resource estimate and expanding drill coverage to test structural and depth extensions of known mineralisation. The company's current cash position and funding runway should be verified through its latest financial disclosures to assess capital adequacy through upcoming development milestones.

Jurisdictional & Environmental, Social, and Governance Positioning

While the Democratic Republic of Congo presents inherent jurisdictional considerations including permitting timelines, infrastructure gaps, and regulatory complexity, Rome's leadership team possesses extensive operational experience navigating the country's legal and social frameworks. This experience base substantially mitigates execution risk relative to junior explorers without established local relationships or institutional knowledge.

Serge Nawej Tshitembu, a Congolese national serving as Non-Executive Director, provides on-the-ground governance expertise and stakeholder engagement capabilities critical to maintaining social license and regulatory compliance. The company's location within 8 kilometers of Alphamin's operational infrastructure, including power supply, road access, and export logistics routes, offers potential capital efficiency advantages subject to future commercial agreements. While no formal infrastructure sharing agreements have been publicly disclosed, proximity to established operations substantially lowers infrastructure development barriers relative to greenfield projects in remote locations.

Commitment to transparent environmental, social, and governance standards and prioritisation of local employment further enhances community support and reduces social risk factors frequently associated with frontier mining jurisdictions. International institutional investors typically apply valuation discounts to Democratic Republic of Congo exposure; however, Rome's operational adjacency to a producing mine and embedded local governance capacity reduce certain elements of this uncertainty premium.

Market Context: Tin's Strategic Role in the Global Energy Transition

Tin's reclassification as a critical mineral by multiple Western governments, including the United States, European Union, and Australia, reflects its growing strategic importance to clean energy supply chains and advanced technology manufacturing. Tin represents a non-substitutable input in soldering materials for electric vehicle battery management systems, photovoltaic cell interconnections, and artificial intelligence hardware assemblies.

The metal exhibits high correlation to emerging technology deployment, positioning it as a structural growth commodity underpinned by secular electrification trends rather than a purely cyclical industrial metal. This strategic positioning has attracted institutional interest, with major trading houses and mining conglomerates increasing direct exposure to primary tin producers through offtake agreements and equity investments.

United States mineral diplomacy initiatives in the Democratic Republic of Congo, expanded in mid-2025, underscore the geopolitical significance of securing critical mineral supply chains outside Chinese influence. The convergence of supply constraints, demand growth from electrification applications, and critical mineral designation creates a differentiated investment case for tin exploration companies with proven management teams and brownfield-adjacent projects in producing regions.

The Investment Thesis for Tin & Rome Resources

• High-grade discovery leverage positions the company to benefit asymmetrically from positive resource estimate outcomes, with drilling intercepts at Kalayi and Mont Agoma indicating continuity and grades consistent with world-class tin systems comparable to producing operations in the region.
• The near-term catalyst of the maiden mineral resource estimate release expected by end-October 2025 represents a binary value driver that can materially re-rate the stock based on confirmed tonnage, grade, and geological continuity, providing investors with a defined timeline for thesis validation.
• Experienced management with a proven track record in Democratic Republic of Congo discoveries, specifically Alphamin and Moto Goldmines, reduces certain exploration execution and permitting navigation risks relative to comparable early-stage explorers without regional operational history.
• Strategic location just 8 kilometers from Mpama North offers potential logistical advantages and geological validation, with proximity to established infrastructure potentially lowering capital expenditure requirements subject to future commercial arrangements.
• Tin's macro tailwind driven by structural supply constraints and critical mineral classification strengthens long-term price support and reduces certain commodity price risks inherent in early-stage resource development projects.
• Financial positioning through the July 2024 capital raise has supported operations through key technical milestones, though investors should verify current cash adequacy and funding runway through the company's latest financial disclosures.

A Milestone in Tin's Tightening Supply Cycle

As tin consolidates its status as a critical mineral underpinning the global electrification economy, Rome Resources' forthcoming maiden resource estimate represents more than a routine exploration milestone. It constitutes a potential inflection point in institutional value recognition for a company positioned at the intersection of proven geological prospectivity, experienced management, and structural commodity tailwinds.

With a high-grade geological setting validated through initial drilling, proven leadership with direct discovery experience in the identical terrain, and capital allocated through critical development phases, Rome is strategically positioned to emerge as one of the credible new entrants in a supply-constrained tin market. For investors seeking exposure to early-stage critical mineral opportunities with asymmetric risk-adjusted upside, Rome's mineral resource estimate delivery expected in October 2025 warrants close monitoring as a potential value inflection catalyst.

TL;DR Summary

Rome Resources is finalizing its maiden mineral resource estimate for the Kalayi and Mont Agoma tin prospects in the Democratic Republic of Congo, expected by end-October 2025. Located just 8 kilometers from Alphamin's Mpama North—the world's highest-grade tin mine—Rome's drilling has intercepted high-grade tin mineralisation comparable to its producing neighbor. With experienced management including Alphamin's original discoverers, the company is strategically positioned in a proven geological corridor as global tin faces structural supply deficits approaching 100,000 tonnes annually by 2030. The upcoming resource estimate represents a binary catalyst that could establish Rome as a credible new entrant in the supply-constrained tin market, offering investors exposure to a critical mineral underpinning electrification with asymmetric risk-adjusted upside potential.

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