African Eagle Resources Regulatory News (AFE)

13 Dec 2006 07:01

African Eagle Resources PLC13 December 2006 AFRICAN EAGLE RESOURCES PLC DRILLING UPDATE FROM MKUSHI COPPER MINES PROJECT * Further positive drill results from the Mkushi Copper Mines Project in Zambia confirm the substantial width and grade of the deposit. * Results include: + 82.7m at 1.7% copper + 66.1m at 1.0% copper * Exploration drilling reveals a parallel copper mineralised zone at Munda * Targets for future drill testing include 40 geophysical IP anomalies African Eagle Resources plc ("the Company", ticker: AIM: AFE) today announcesfurther results from the feasibility study drill programme designed to add tothe resource estimate at the Company's nearest production project, the MkushiCopper Mines in central Zambia. Mineralised drill intercepts included: €82.7m at 1.7% copper €66.1m at 1.0% copper €31m at 0.98% copper €97m at 0.5% copper €36m at 0.97% copper €33m at 0.94% copper The Company is also pleased to announce results from exploration drillingrecently completed at the Munda prospect, 4km southeast of H-Zone and theMunshiwemba open pit. This prospect has not previously been drilled. Mineraliseddrill intercepts from African Eagle's 6 hole test drilling programme included: €40m at 0.48% copper €32m at 0.57% copper African Eagle's Managing Director Mark Parker comments: "These excellent resultsfrom the feasibility drilling at our core H-Zone deposit continue to show thesubstantial width and high grade of copper mineralisation. The new explorationdrill results reveal another important mineralised body at Munda, which lies ona separate mineralised trend parallel to and 4km south of the main copper zonewhere the feasibility drilling is currently under way. Munda is the fifthmineralised zone at Mkushi to be drill tested by the Company. All five haveyielded significant results. More than 40 geophysical IP targets remain to betested and we believe that the Mkushi area is adding up to a considerable coppersystem." The H zone and Coloquo drill results are from resource definition drillingconducted by Central Asia Gold Limited (CAGL), which is managing and funding abankable feasibility study in the central core area of Mkushi Copper Mines, inpartnership with African Eagle. The core area embraces the Munshiwemba, H-Zone, Coloquo and Mtuga mineralisedzones. Munshiwemba zone was mined in the 1960s and 1970s by open pit. Itproduced 2.2 million tonnes of ore at an average grade of 1% copper but was byno means exhausted therefore the bulk of the deposit is reported to remain.H-Zone is the southwest extension of the Munshiwemba mineralisation, whereAfrican Eagle has outlined an independently audited resource containing anestimated 60,000 to 80,000 tonnes of copper, depending on cut-off grade (www.africaneagle.co.uk/news/news-149.html). Mtuga and Coloquo are smaller buthigh-grade mineralised zones along strike from Munshiwemba and H-Zone. Mtuga wasmined by underground workings in the 1920s. Drill hole Hole Type From Intersection Copper grade% AreaMH18 DD 77m 31m 0.98 H Zoneincluding 77m 23m 1.18and 196m 11m 1.29MH20 DD 209.24 17.53 0.92 H Zoneand 241.50 2.05 2.12MH24 DD 100m 97m 0.54 H Zoneincluding 115m 17m 1.21MH39 DD 48m 17m 0.60MH40 DD 26m 33m 0.94 H ZoneMH42 DD 36m 49m 0.25 H Zoneincluding 59m 9m 0.41MH44 DD 164.35 66.10 1.03 H Zoneincluding 164.35 10.95 2.97including 180.00 11.32 1.99MH46 DD 149.48 82.68 1.66 H Zoneincluding 149.48 22.02 1.77including 177.50 10.14 2.11including 193.30 32.94 2.10including 229.08 3.08 2.03MC11 RC 21m 36m 0.97 Coloquoincluding 31m 26m 1.14 CAGL has completed 3,259 m of reverse circulation drilling and 1,317m of diamonddrilling since taking over operations in the core area in July 2006, themajority at Munshiwemba and H zone. The latest results confirm that substantialwidths of copper mineralisation with high grade zones are present at H-Zone andare expected to lead to an increase in the resource established from AfricanEagle's drilling prior to July. While CAGL conducts the feasibility study in the core area, African Eagle ismanaging the exploration of the rest of the 467 km2 area under the ProspectingLicence, funded pro rata by the two companies. Additional drilling results havebeen received from the Munda prospect, which lies approximately 4km south ofH-Zone, on a mineralised trend parallel to the core zone. The Munda area was prospected during the 1970's. Three small exploration shaftswere sunk and several trenches dug but the area was never drilled. A 1990 reporton the exploration potential of the Mkushi Copper Mines project area by ZCCMestimated that the Munda zone could contain up to 8 million tonnes grading 1.2%copper, containing approximately 96,000 tonnes of copper metal. To date, AfricanEagle has drilled six reverse circulation boreholes at Munda to test stronggeophysical induced polarisation (IP) anomalies in the vicinity of the oldshafts and trenches. All six holes intersected copper sulphide (chalcopyrite)and three intersected significant mineralised intervals. The coppermineralisation is up to 40m wide and has been traced over a strike length of1,300m. Drill hole Hole From Intersection Copper Type Grade % MMD3 RC 77m 40m 0.48 incl. 79m 5m 1.21 and 91m 9m 0.71 MMD4 RC 69m 32m 0.57 incl. 69m 5m 1.43 and 96m 5m 2.04 MMD1 RC 0m 6m 0.38 MMD6 RC 41m 2m 0.35 The potential for discovery of additional copper mineralised zones is good. Theknown copper mineralisation gives clear IP anomalies and African Eagle'sextensive IP surveys have defined 40 similar anomalies which have yet to bedrill tested. The Company believes that these could raise the total estimate ofcopper metal contained on the licence to 500,000 tonnes. Over the coming few months, resource definition drilling on a 50 x 50m grid overthe core area will continue and a high resolution helicopter airborne magneticand radiometric survey will be flown. John ParkChairman Qualified PersonInformation in this report relating to exploration results is based on datareviewed by Mr Christopher Davies BSc, MSc, DIC, Operations Director for AfricanEagle who is a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy,has in excess of 25 years experience in mineral exploration and is a QualifiedPerson under AIM rules. Mr Davies consents to the inclusion of the informationin the form and context in which it appears.About African Eagle African Eagle is a mineral exploration and development company operating ineastern and central Africa. The Company's principal advanced projects are theMkushi Copper Mines project in Zambia and the Miyabi gold project in Tanzania,which are being fast-tracking towards production. The Company also holds a largewell-balanced portfolio of promising earlier stage gold and base metal projects,including the Ndola copper project and the Eagle Eye iron-oxide copper goldproject. African Eagle has projects in Zambia, Tanzania and Mozambique, which are allcountries with highly prospective geology, low above-ground risks and trackrecords of successful major investments in the metals and minerals industries. African Eagle specialises in project generation and exploration. To take itsdiscoveries into production, it plans to sign up industry partners with recordsof successful mine development. These joint ventures and, in time, the revenuefrom advanced projects, are expected to finance future exploration and newdiscoveries. The Company has a highly motivated team, proven management and an experiencedboard. African Eagle prides itself on being a low cost operator and on average80p or more of every £1 is spent "in the ground". For further information, see the Company's web site www.africaneagle.co.uk orcontact one of the following: Mark ParkerManaging Director+44 20 7248 6059+44 77 5640 6899 Leesa Peters or Ed PortmanConduit PR+44 20 7429 6666 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange