| Mon 10 May 2010, 8:04 | | AEA - African Eagle Resources plc - Drill results from Ngasamo Hill at African |
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AEA
AEA
AEA - African Eagle Resources plc - Drill results from Ngasamo Hill at African
Eagle`s Dutwa Nickel project in Tanzania
African Eagle Resources plc
(Incorporated in England and Wales, registered number 3912362)
AIM share code: AFE AIM ISIN: GB0003394813
JSE share code: AEA JSE ISIN: GB0003394813
DRILL RESULTS FROM NGASAMO HILL AT AFRICAN EAGLE`S DUTWA NICKEL PROJECT IN
TANZANIA
Drill assay results from remaining holes at Ngasamo.
- Results from all 66 drill holes now received and sent for resource estimate
- 59 out of the 66 holes intersected mineralisation
- Key nickel mineralised intersections include:
- 75m at 1.42% nickel
- 84m at 1.07% nickel including 30m at 1.64%
- 63m at 1.41% nickel including 45m at 1.71%
- 66m at 1.11% nickel
- 57m at 1.25% nickel including 12m at 2.48%
- Key cobalt mineralised intersections include:
- 18m at 0.47% cobalt
- 54m at 0.13% cobalt
- 9m at 0.43% cobalt
- 9m at 0.27% cobalt including 3m at 0.48%
- Geostatistical infill drilling at Wamangola Hill (Dutwa Main Deposit) also
completed
Africa Eagle is pleased to report the remaining assay results from its recently
completed drilling programme at Ngasamo Hill, a part of its Dutwa Nickel
project, and the appointment of Snowden Mining Industry Consultants in Perth, WA
to undertake a formal resource estimate.
The Company`s Managing Director Mark Parker comments, "We are extremely pleased
with the drill results from Ngasamo. They reveal a deposit which is somewhat
thicker than the main Dutwa deposit, and although the average grade appears to
be slightly lower, we expect Ngasamo will add significantly to the overall
resource base.
"We have also completed an infill drilling programme at the Dutwa main deposit,
designed to test the internal variability of the mineralisation and allow the
Dutwa main resource to be upgraded to JORC Indicated category.
"Meanwhile, the nickel market continues to show strength, with prices now up
more than 40% this year, backed by an increase of 55% year-on-year stainless
steel demand from China."
All the assay results have now been received from African Eagle`s programme of
66 vertical reverse circulation (RC) drill holes at Ngasamo, which was designed
to delineate a formal Mineral Resource to JORC Inferred category or better.
Tables of all mineralised intersections from Ngasamo with grades of more than
0.5% nickel and 0.05% cobalt have been posted on the Company`s web site,
together with a plan of the grade x thickness parameter for each hole, which
provides an indication of the form of the resource. See
www.africaneagle.co.uk/p/ng_drilling.asp
Each hole was drilled through the blanket-like nickel deposit until it reached
bedrock. Samples were composited over 3m down-hole lengths and assays for nickel
and cobalt were carried out at Humac Laboratories in Tanzania, by atomic
absorption spectrometry (AAS). The samples have now been sent for analysis for a
wider suite of chemical elements, to help in modelling any internal geochemical
domains within the deposit. The domain models of the Ngasamo and Dutwa Main
deposits will be used to plan a core drilling programme to obtain samples,
representative of the deposits and their variations, for the final phase of
metallurgical testing.
The Ngasamo drill database has been sent to Snowden Mining Industry Consultants
in Perth, WA, for deposit modelling and generation of a formal resource
estimate. The Dutwa Main drill database, including the results of the infill
programme, expected soon, will be sent to Snowden for an upgraded deposit model
and resource estimate. Ngasamo drill samples will also be sent for preliminary
metallurgical testing to Mintek in South Africa.
With the determination of a resource estimate at Ngasamo to JORC inferred
standard or better, African Eagle will have completed its earn-in of a 35%
interest in the deposit from Ngasamo`s owners, Safina a.s. of the Czech Republic
and its Tanzanian subsidiary Precious Metals Refinery Company Ltd. Thereafter,
the Company can increase its equity in Ngasamo to at least 50% and up to 75% by
completing further resource and feasibility work.
Qualified Person
Information in this report relating to exploration results is based on data
reviewed by Mr Christopher Davies BSc, MSc, DIC, FSEG, FAusIMM, Operations
Director for African Eagle, who is a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of
Mining and Metallurgy, has more than 27 years` relevant experience in mineral
exploration, and is a Qualified Person under AIM rules. Mr Davies consents to
the inclusion of the information in the form and context in which it appears.
Technical terms
A glossary of technical terms used by African Eagle in this announcement and
other published material may be found at www.africaneagle.co.uk/p/glossary.asp
For further information:
Mark Parker
Managing Director
African Eagle
+44 20 7248 6059
+44 77 5640 6899
Nicola Marrin
Seymour Pierce Limited, London
Nominated Adviser
+ 44 20 7107 8000
Charmane Russell
Russell & Associates, Johannesburg
+ 27 11 8803924
+27 82 8928052
Ed Portman / Leesa Peters
Conduit PR, London
+44 20 7429 6607
+44 77 3336 3501
About African Eagle
Since discovering major oxide nickel deposits at Dutwa in Tanzania, African
Eagle is in transition from a diversified explorer into a nickel mining company.
The Company completed a positive scoping study on the Dutwa deposit in July 2009
and is now working towards a full feasibility study.
African Eagle is evaluating a second promising oxide nickel deposit at Zanzui in
Tanzania, 60km south of Dutwa.
The Company also holds a 49% interest in the Mkushi Copper Mines joint venture
in Zambia, for which a draft feasibility study was completed in Q4 2008. In
addition, it holds a half million ounce gold resource at the Miyabi project in
Tanzania, and a portfolio of gold and base metal exploration assets, including
two projects in the Zambian Copperbelt.
The Company is seeking partners or buyers for its "non-core" copper, gold and
uranium projects.
More information may be found on the Company`s website, www.africaneagle.co.uk
African Eagle`s oxide nickel projects
The Dutwa oxide nickel project, discovered in mid-2008, consists of two deposits
within blankets of laterite or weathered rock on the tops of low ridges. African
Eagle believes that the deposits together contain around 500,000 tonnes of
nickel with by-product cobalt. Because the deposits lie at surface, mining costs
will be very low.
The deposits lie 100km east of the railhead at Mwanza and close to the main
Mwanza-Nairobi trunk road, a major power line and the shore of Lake Victoria.
The Company holds a 90% interest in the main Dutwa deposit, with option to
acquire 100%, and is earning up to 75% of a second nickel deposit at Ngasamo,
6km to the west.
Since discovering the deposits in June 2008, African Eagle has explored the
project very quickly and cost-effectively, completing within 9 months an interim
JORC-compliant resource estimate based on the drilling to September 2008 and
laboratory metallurgical and mineralogical tests which showed that the deposit
can be processed efficiently by sulphuric acid leaching.
In July 2009, the Company announced the results of a "proof of concept" scoping
study by GRD Minproc, which indicated that the project would be profitable if it
were in production today. At current nickel prices (
$10 to $11/lb), earnings
over the life of mine would be of the order of $3 to 4 billion on an EBIT basis,
giving an internal rate of return around 30%, after tax. African Eagle has now
begun work towards a definitive feasibility study.
The economic viability of any nickel laterite deposit depends on its metallurgy,
its resource geology and its location. Metallurgical tests have shown that the
Dutwa ore is unusually, perhaps uniquely, amenable to acid leaching, with very
low acid consumption and a very fast leach reaction compared to other nickel
laterites around the world. These characteristics should allow the ore to be
processed at atmospheric pressure using straightforward heap or tank leaching.
In addition to the Dutwa deposits, African Eagle holds the Zanzui nickel
project, which is only 60km from Dutwa and offers potential economies of scale.
Zanzui is possibly as large as Dutwa and preliminary metallurgical tests suggest
that it shares the same fast, low-acid leaching characteristics. The Company is
aware of at least two other, similar deposits in Tanzania.
Sponsor
Nedbank Capital
10 May 2010
Date: 10/05/2010 08:04:03 Produced by the JSE SENS Department.
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