| Thu 10 Jun 2010, 8:00 | | AEA - African Eagle Resources plc - Latest drilling results from African Eagle`s |
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AEA
AEA
AEA - African Eagle Resources plc - Latest drilling results from 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
LATEST DRILLING RESULTS FROM AFRICAN EAGLE`S DUTWA NICKEL PROJECT IN TANZANIA
Results from 98 further resource definition drill holes
- Infill drilling aims to upgrade resource from inferred to indicated
category
- Key mineralised intersections include
- 54m at 1.5% nickel including 6m @ 2.8%
- 45m at 1.3% nickel
- 57m at 1.0% nickel
- 42m at 1.3% nickel
- Deposit modelling underway by Snowden Mining Industry Services
- Drill rig now working on a preliminary resource drilling programme at
Zanzui
African Eagle`s Managing Director Mark Parker comments, "We are pleased to
report that we have completed our programme of infill and definition drilling at
the main Wamangola Hill Deposit at our Dutwa Nickel Project in Tanzania. The
programme was designed by Snowden, our deposit modelling contractor, to provide
geostatistical data to allow the resource to be recalculated to JORC Indicated
category. All the drill results have been sent to Snowden and resource modelling
is well under way.
"The rig has now moved to conduct a preliminary resource drill programme at
Zanzui, our other Tanzanian nickel-bearing oxide deposit 50km south west of
Dutwa."
The Company has now received results from a programme of 71 infill
geostatistical Reverse Circulation (RC) drill holes for 4,003m and a further 27
definition holes, all from the main Wamangola Hill Deposit at the Dutwa Nickel
Project. This brings the total resource drilling programme at the Dutwa project,
including the Wamangola and Ngasamo Deposits, to 404 holes for a total of 24,297
metres.
The latest programme was designed to provide data on the uniformity and
variability of the deposit, to allow Snowden to recalculate the resource
estimate and upgrade a significant proportion of it to JORC Indicated category.
These results, together with additional step-out drill results already
delivered, should also provide an increase to the inferred resource of 31
million tonnes at 1.1% average nickel grade, announced in November 2008.
A table of all mineralised intersections at Dutwa with grade more than 0.5%
nickel, including these latest results, is available on the Company`s web site,
www.africaneagle.co.uk/p/dutwa_drilling.asp
The drill rig is now working on a preliminary resource drilling programme at
Zanzui, the Company`s other nickel-bearing laterite 50km south of Dutwa. The
Zanzui laterite is developed over a layered basic-ultrabasic complex some 12km
in diameter. Scout drilling and preliminary metallurgical tests in 2008
indicated that at least in part, the Zanzui laterite is similar in character to
the Dutwa deposits.
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 nickel oxide deposits at Dutwa in northern 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 nickel oxide 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 copper 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 $1 1/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 50km 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.
10 June 2010
Sponsor
Nedbank Capital
Date: 10/06/2010 08:00:06 Produced by the JSE SENS Department.
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