African Eagle Resources Regulatory News (AFE)

5 Aug 2005 07:00

African Eagle Resources PLC05 August 2005 African Eagle Resources plc AWARD OF PROSPECTING LICENCE IN ZAMBIAN COPPERBELT New licence in world-class copper-cobalt province Drilling to start by mid 2006 African Eagle Resources ("the Company", ticker AFE) announces the award of aprospecting licence in the Ndola region of Zambia, covering a large, highlyprospective area of the Central African Copperbelt. The prolific Copperbelt is one of the great mining districts of the world. Itcontains a global resource of almost 200 million tonnes of copper metal, mostlyin very high grade deposits and includes two of the world's ten biggest copperdeposits. Many of the deposits also contain high cobalt concentrations and theCopperbelt accounts for about 40% of the world's cobalt reserves. The Company's new licence lies close to several important deposits and containshighly prospective geological units and structures. African Eagle will be thefirst company to explore this strategically important area of the Copperbeltusing state of the art techniques and knowledge. The new licence, granted by the Zambian Ministry of Mines for an initial,renewable period of two years, covers 428 square kilometres, much of itunderlain by the highly prospective Mine Series geological sequence which hostsmost of the world-class deposits in Zambia and the neighbouring DRC. The licence surrounds First Quantum's mining lease and showcase SX/EW plant atBwana Mkubwa. Five other major copper deposits lie within 30km. Theinfrastructure of the area is excellent, with good roads, railways and powerlines running through the licence. A map showing the geology of the new licence, together with a sketch showing thelocations of the principal deposits of the Copperbelt may be viewed on theCompany's web site www.africaneagle.co.uk/projects-ndola. African Eagle is conducting a thorough review of the archive data from earlierexploration and will shortly start a field exploration programme includingadvanced geophysical surveys, designed to define drill targets for testing bymid 2006. African Eagle's Chairman John Park, comments "This licence gives African Eagle apresence in one of the world's greatest metallogenic provinces. Coupled with ourongoing exploration at Eagle Eye, Mkushi and Lunga, the new licencesignificantly enhances African Eagle's Zambian portfolio and increases thelikelihood of our making a major copper discovery". John Park Chairman African Eagle Resources plc 5 August, 2005 For further information Tel Mobile John Park (Chairman) African Eagle 020 7248 6059 077 7980 1159or Mark Parker (MD) Leesa Peters or Amanda Harris Conduit PR 020 7618 8708 07979 955 923 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange