ACA.L Regulatory News (ACA)

10 April 2015 Acacia Mining plc LSE:ACA ("Acacia" or the "Company") Further Expansion of Land Holdings in the Houndé belt in Burkina Faso * Further agreements signed with Canyon Resources and Thor Explorations in Burkina Faso * Land package in the highly prospective Houndé Belt expanded to approximately 2,400km2 * Continuation of strategy to expand into the most prospective geological belts across Africa Acacia is pleased to announce that it has continued to expand its footprint inthe prospective Houndé Belt in Burkina Faso through the signing of two furtherearn-in agreements with Canyon Resources (ASX:CAY, the "Canyon Agreement") andThor Explorations Ltd (TSX-V:THX, the "Thor Agreement"). The Thor Agreement allows Acacia to earn up to an 80% interest in the CentralHoundé Project. Initially Acacia can earn a 51% interest by the completion ofagreed exploration expenditures over a three year period, and then has thepotential to earn an additional 29% interest in the project by completing aPre-Feasibility Study on a mineral resource on the project area. The CanyonAgreement allows Acacia to earn up to a 75% interest in the Pinarello andKonkolikan Projects by the completion of an up-front cash payment and agreedexploration expenditure over a two year period. Acacia will manage andundertake exploration programmes on both of these new earn-in projects. Theplanned exploration expenditures during the remainder of 2015 across the newprojects totals approximately US$1 million and forms part of the forecast US$20million 2015 exploration budget. The completion of these earn-in agreements complements the existing SouthHoundé JV in Burkina Faso (Sarama Resources/Acacia JV), and together, the threejoint ventures provide Acacia exposure to approximately 2,400km2 of theprospective Houndé Belt. This land package has been built over the past fivemonths and represents a large and coherent land package providing Acacia with agreat opportunity to explore a well-endowed greenstone belt. The agreements nowcover an area larger than the licence areas Acacia holds in either Tanzania orKenya. Commenting on the agreements, Brad Gordon CEO of Acacia, said: "We are pleasedto continue to expand our footprint in Burkina Faso, with the new agreementsgiving us further access to the most prospective trends within the Houndé belt,which is host to a number of high grade discoveries. These agreements are thecontinuation of our strategy to build substantial land packages in the mostprospective geological belts in Africa. We are looking forward to commencingour exploration programmes on the properties and we will continue to assessexploration opportunities throughout West Africa that further support our longterm growth strategy." Figure 1: Regional Geology Houndé Belt Burkina Faso and location of Earn-inProject licences See www.acaciamining.com for picture Canyon Resources - Pinarello and Konkolikan Projects The agreement comprises six exploration licences covering a total area of1,105km2. Previous exploration by Canyon has identified a number of explorationtargets and includes the interpreted extensions of the MM, MC and Bantoumineralised trends located to the north of the Pinarello licence area. The earn-in agreement required an upfront payment of US$400,000 to acquire a51% interest in the projects with the potential to earn up to a 75% interestthrough exploration expenditure of US$1.5 million over the next two years. Onreaching 75% interest Canyon will be required to fund the ongoing explorationprogrammes at their equity level or be subject to dilution under a standarddilution clause. Further payments become due to Canyon on delineation of a 1.5million ounce gold resource (US$1 million) and subsequently on the decision tomine (US$1 million). Thor Explorations - Central Houndé Project The Central Houndé Project comprises three exploration licences covering atotal area of 474km2. Previous exploration by Thor has been minimal, consistingof limited soil sampling and a small number of drill holes around existingartisanal sites. The project is at a conceptual stage, however, several knownmineralised trends/shear zones extending from the south-southwest and from thenorth pass through the project area, and the limited exploration work to datehas already identified several target areas. Planned work programmes will focuson regional targeting through soil sampling and IP geophysical surveys inpreparation for drill testing. The earn-in agreement requires a spend of US$500,000 over the next twelvemonths, with a further spend of US$1 million over the following twenty fourmonths required to earn a 51% interest in the project. Upon completion of theinitial earn-in, Acacia may earn a further 29% interest in the project(bringing Acacia's interest to 80%) by spending an additional US$2 million andcompleting a pre-feasibility study. Again standard dilution provisions applyshould Thor elect not to contribute during any contributions phase. Geology The licences contained in both of the agreements are underlain by Birimianrocks of the Houndé Belt that consist of mafic to intermediate metavolcanicrocks and wide domains of volcaniclastic sedimentary rocks. A number of northto north-east trending, regional-scale shear zones traverse through the variousproject areas and are known to control the location of gold domains. The Houndé Belt contains a number of gold deposits associated with a number ofbelt-scale anomalous structures; the gold mineralisation is hosted by a varietyof rock types all with different ore styles and metallurgical characteristics.The gold mineralisation identified to date on the South Houndé JV Project(Sarama Resources/Acacia JV) is spatially related to quartz veining withinquartz feldspar porphyry dykes intruding into sheared and foliatedmeta-sedimentary rocks. The gold mineralisation being targeted in the CentralHoundé and Pinarello Projects are interpreted extensions of known gold trendsnorth and south of these project areas associated with regional shear zones. Figure 2: Surface soil gold geochemistry from South Houndé JV and Pinarelloprojects See www.acaciamining.com for picture Asset Locations The South Houndé, Central Houndé, Pinarello and Konkolikan Projects are locatedin south-west Burkina Faso, approximately 300km south-west of Ouagadougou and90km south-east of Bobo-Dioulasso, the second largest city in Burkina Faso.Access to the area is via a major sealed bitumen road from Ouagadougou toBobo-Dioulasso and then via a network of secondary and tertiary roads. Theproject area is sparsely populated. Future Exploration Programmes Going forward, exploration programmes will consist of property-wide surfacegeochemical programmes, auger/RAB/Aircore drilling, geophysical surveys (IP andaeromagnetic surveys) and RC and/or diamond core drilling. Acacia expects tospend US$5 million across all of our properties in Burkina Faso in 2015, whichforms part of the planned US$20 million exploration budget for 2015. ENQUIRIES For further information, please visit our website: www.acaciamining.com orcontact: Acacia Mining plc +44 20 7129 7150 Andrew Wray, Chief Financial Officer Giles Blackham, Investor Relations Manager Bell Pottinger +44 20 3772 2500 Daniel Thöle About Acacia Mining plc Acacia Mining plc (LSE:ACA), formerly African Barrick Gold, is Tanzania'slargest gold miner and one of the largest producers of gold in Africa. We havethree producing mines, all located in north-west Tanzania: Bulyanhulu, Buzwagi,and North Mara and a portfolio of exploration projects in Tanzania, Kenya andBurkina Faso. Our approach is focused on strengthening our three core pillars; our business,our people and our relationships. Our name change from African Barrick Gold toAcacia Mining reflects a new approach to mining, and an ambition to create aleading African Company. Acacia Mining is a UK public company headquartered in London. We are listed onthe Main Market of the London Stock Exchange with a secondary listing on theDar es Salaam Stock Exchange. Barrick Gold Corporation remains our majorityshareholder. Acacia Mining reports in US dollars and in accordance with IFRS asadopted by the European Union, unless otherwise stated in this announcement. Disclaimer and forward-looking statements This announcement is for information purposes only and does not constitute aninvitation or offer to underwrite, subscribe for or otherwise acquire ordispose of any securities of Acacia in any jurisdiction. This announcement includes "forward-looking statements" that express or implyexpectations of future events or results as opposed to historical facts. Thesestatements include, financial projections and estimates and their underlyingassumptions, statements regarding plans, objectives and expectations withrespect to future production, operations, costs, projects, and statementsregarding future performance. Forward-looking statements are generallyidentified by the words "plans," "expects," "anticipates," "believes,""intends," "estimates" and other similar expressions. All forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties andother factors, many of which are beyond the control of Acacia, which couldcause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressedin, or implied by, the forward-looking statements contained herein. Factorsthat could cause or contribute to differences between the actual results,performance and achievements of Acacia include, but are not limited to, changesor developments in political, economic or business conditions or national orlocal legislation or regulation in countries in which Acacia conducts - or mayin the future conduct - business, industry trends, competition, fluctuations inthe spot and forward price of gold or certain other commodity prices (such ascopper and diesel), currency fluctuations (including the US dollar, SouthAfrican rand, Kenyan shilling and Tanzanian shilling exchange rates), Acacia'sability to successfully integrate acquisitions, Acacia's ability to recover itsreserves or develop new reserves, including its ability to convert itsresources into reserves and its mineral potential into resources or reserves,and to process its mineral reserves successfully and in a timely manner,Acacia's ability to complete land acquisitions required to support its miningactivities, operational or technical difficulties which may occur in thecontext of mining activities, delays and technical challenges associated withthe completion of projects, risk of trespass, theft and vandalism, changes inAcacia's business strategy and ongoing implementation of operational reviews,as well as risks and hazards associated with the business of mineralexploration, development, mining and production and risks and factors affectingthe gold mining industry in general. Although Acacia's management believes thatthe expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable,Acacia cannot give assurances that such statements will prove to be correct.Accordingly, investors should not place reliance on forward-looking statementscontained in this announcement. Any forward-looking statements in this announcement only reflect informationavailable at the time of preparation. Subject to the requirements of theDisclosure and Transparency Rules and the Listing Rules or applicable law, ABGexplicitly disclaims any obligation or undertaking publicly to update or reviseany forward-looking statements in this announcement, whether as a result of newinformation, future events or otherwise. Nothing in this announcement should beconstrued as a profit forecast or estimate.