African Eagle Resources Regulatory News (AFE)

21 Mar 2006 07:01

African Eagle Resources PLC21 March 2006 African Eagle Resources plc UPDATED RESOURCE ESTIMATE OF 520,000 OUNCES GOLD FOR THE MIYABI GOLD PROJECT, TANZANIA • Infill and extensional drilling has increased the global resource atMiyabi to 12.4 million tonnes at 1.3 grams per tonne gold (g/t) • Estimated to JORC standards by SRK, the resource contains 520,000ounces of contained gold of which 71% lies in the Indicated category. Thisrepresents a 30% increase on the previous estimate. • Numerous exploration targets remain to be tested within the Miyabimineralised corridor, offering the potential for a + 1 million ounce deposit. African Eagle's continuing drilling programme at Miyabi is designed to improvethe statistical confidence in the known ore bodies and to increase the overallresource base. The Company's intentions are to delineate an economic resourcewhich could be brought into production and to demonstrate the existence ofadditional resources within and near the Miyabi mineralised corridor. The Company considers that these latest results demonstrate reasonable potentialfor economic extraction at Miyabi. Future drilling to enlarge the resource willbe part of an economic pre-feasibilty study. The metallurgical test resultsannounced on 20th January have already demonstrated that the gold is extractableby conventional leaching. The new resource estimate was made by SRK Consulting in accordance with theAustralasian Code for the Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resourcesand Ore Reserves (the JORC Code), using data from 30 cored drill holes and 265RC percussion drill holes. See the technical information section below fordetails of the methods used and a table of the categorised resource estimatesfor each of the seven mineralised bodies. Using a cut-off grade of 0.5g/t, appropriate to Tanzanian deposits of the Miyabitype, the total resource is 12.4Mt at a grade of 1.3g/t, containing 520,000ounces of gold. Of this, 71% is in the Indicated category. Grade sensitivity analysis revealed that at 1g/t cut off the resource is 6.3Mtat 1.82 g/t containing 370,000 ounces of gold and at nil cut off the resource is14.4Mt at 1.15g/t containing 532,000 ounces of gold. Mark Parker, Managing Director comments "This result increases our geologicalunderstanding and brings us much closer to developing a mineable asset, with agood level of confidence. Our Miyabi team's next task is to add significantly tothe total by drilling the Ngaya and Shambani South zones, together with newtargets identified from recent IP and magnetic surveys. This will lead into aneconomic feasibility study". Technical information Prior to calculating the resource, SRK carried out an audit of the drilling,sampling and assay methods and the quality control checks performed by theCompany. SRK then modelled the gold-bearing zones using block models aligned to thestrike. The grades of the blocks were interpolated from the 3m composite drillhole assay data by Ordinary Kriging with search ellipses optimised for eachzone. A cut-off grade of 0.5g/t was applied. The following table sets out the in-situ Mineral Resource for the seven orebodies. Classification of the Mineral Resource is based on quality control data,geological continuity and borehole spacing. Zone Resource category Tonnage (Mt) Grade (g/t) OuncesFaida Indicated 3,460,000 1.52 170,000 Inferred 960,000 0.89 30,000Kilimani Indicated 2,610,000 1.40 120,000 Inferred 280,000 1.56 10,000Shambani Main Indicated 690,000 1.92 40,000 Inferred 180,000 1.74 10,000Shambani N Indicated 880,000 1.09 30,000 Inferred 350,000 1.06 10,000Shambani S Inferred 290,000 1.30 10,000Ngaya Indicated 230,000 1.01 10,000 Inferred 1,460,000 1.06 50,000North Zone Inferred 960,000 0.80 50,000TOTAL Indicated 7,880,000 1.45 370,000 Inferred 4,490,000 1.01 150,000 Total 12,370,000 1.29 520,000 Note : appropriate rounding may have resulted in apparent summation errors John Park Chairman African Eagle Resources plc 21 March 2006 Information in this report relating to the estimation of Mineral Resources isbased on data compiled by SRK Consulting (UK) Ltd, who act as consultants to theCompany. The estimation was supervised by Mr Martin Pittuck whom SRK consider tosatisfy the criteria for a Competent Person in accordance with the AustralasianCode for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves(the JORC Code, 2004). Mr Pittuck has in excess of ten years Mineral Resourceexperience relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit underconsideration and is a full-time employee of SRK. SRK consents to the inclusionof the data in the form and context in which it appears. For further information, see the Company's web site www.africaneagle.co.uk orcontact one of the following: Mark Parker Managing Director +44 20 7248 6059 +44 77 7980 1159 Chris Davies Operations Director +44 20 7248 6059 +44 78 6672 9959 Leesa Peters or Pam Spooner Conduit PR +44 20 7429 6600 +44 78 1215 9885 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange