African Eagle Resources Regulatory News (AFE)

23 Nov 2005 07:00

African Eagle Resources PLC23 November 2005 African Eagle Resources plc COMPLETION OF PRELIMINARY EVALUATION DRILLING AT MKUSHI African Eagle Resources plc ("the Company" or "African Eagle", ticker AFE) ispleased to announce the remaining results from the preliminary evaluationdrilling at its Mkushi copper project in central Zambia. Mineralised drillintercepts included: 14.4m at 0.8% copper 37.0m at 0.5% copper including 5m at 2.1% Cu with 0.26 g/t gold 11.6m at 0.9% copper 4.1m at 2.7% copper with 0.1 g/t gold. These intercepts, together with the results of new geophysical surveys byAfrican Eagle and the drill results previously announced by the Company on 14June 2005 and 23 August 2005, demonstrate that the area contains severaldiscrete copper deposits, each extending over a strike length of several hundredmetres. All the significant drill intercepts to date are tabulated below. African Eagle's Directors believe that these copper deposits have the potentialto be brought into production quickly and operated profitably, provided that asufficient global resource can be defined. The Company has begun a programme ofdefinition drilling to quantify the resource to current industry standards(JORC), together with exploration drilling to test promising geophysicalanomalies in previously unexplored parts of the prospecting licence. The Company will also commission a scoping study to investigate thepracticalities and economics of taking the project into production. The studywill entail metallurgical test work on mineralised drill core followed bypreliminary plant design and budgetary costing. African Eagle's Operations Director, Chris Davies, comments, "The results of ourpreliminary drilling support the Company's belief that there is potential forthe copper deposits in the Mkushi licence to be developed commercially.Moreover, the latest geophysical results suggest that the exploration potentialof the wider Mkushi area is substantial". Background information Copper was discovered at Mkushi in the 1920s. The copper mineralisation formsseveral bodies spread over a strike length of 10 to 15 kilometres. Of these, theMtuga ore body was mined underground in the 1920s and the Munshiwemba ore bodywas mined by open pit in the 1960s and 70s. In 1990 the Zambian state copper company ZCCM estimated that the remainingresources amounted to 30 million tonnes averaging 1.23% copper, equivalent to370,000 tonnes of contained copper metal. However, this estimate cannot now beindependently verified and was not made to the JORC resource reporting standardswhich have since been adopted by the industry. Early indications suggest that the mineralogy of the deposits is simple andunlikely to present any processing difficulties. The deposits' proximity to oneanother should permit the use of a central processing plant. The area enjoys a favourable location near road and rail links, a good watersupply, an air strip and a major power line. Exploration summary The latest results conclude African Eagle's preliminary exploration drilling atMkushi. The programme, of 20 inclined diamond drill holes for a total of 3,031metres, was designed to verify four of the copper deposits documented in oldarchive reports and to locate additional resources. Most of the holes were "twins" of mineralised drill holes completed in the 1960s. The table below showsall significant mineralised intercepts to date. In addition to the drilling, the Company is conducting induced polarisation (IP)and gravity geophysical surveys over the area. The results of the IP work todate show several areas of high chargeability, suggesting the presence ofadditional copper deposits. A map showing these results can be seen atwww.africaneagle.co.uk/projects-mkushi.html. The Company has also evaluated the possibility of reprocessing of the tailingsdumps from earlier mining but the copper grade of the tailings is too low.However, this does indicate that even in the 1920s the recovery of copper fromthe ores was high and thus that the ore processing is likely to bestraightforward. Drill Hole Prospect From (m) Interval (m) Copper %MC1 Coloquo 35.5 16.7 1.5MC2 Coloquo 75.6 12.5 0.7MC3 Coloquo 54.0 5.3 0.5MC4 Coloquo 42.5 24.3 0.7MC5 Coloquo 60.1 33.1 1.9MC6 Coloquo 51.4 16.8 2.4MH1 H Zone 21.8 57.9 0.3MH2 H Zone 74.8 39.5 1.2MH3 H Zone 25.6 70.4 0.8MH4 H Zone 75.1 53.1 0.7MH5 H Zone 41.7 13.6 1.3MH6 H Zone 34.7 18.0 1.3MH7 H Zone 48.8 109.5 0.5MMT1* Mtuga 41.7 14.4 0.8MMT2* Mtuga 40.5 37.0 0.5MMU1* Munshimwemba 86.7 11.6 0.9MMU2* Munshimwemba 3.5 4.1 2.7MMU4* Munshimwemba 59.0 1.3 1.8* new results, November 2005 John Park ChairmanAfrican Eagle Resources plc 22 November 2005 For further information Tel MobileJohn Park (Chairman) African Eagle 020 7248 6059 077 7980 1159 or Mark Parker (MD)Pam Spooner Conduit PR 020 7618 8533 077 7199 3236or Leesa Peters 020 7618 8708 078 1215 9885 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange