ALS.L Regulatory News (ALS)

Altus Strategies Plc / Index: AIM / EPIC: ALS / Sector: Mining

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24 January 2018

Altus Strategies Plc

("Altus" or the "Company")

Multiple Gold Workings Discovered at Zolowo Project in Western Liberia

Altus Strategies Plc (AIM: ALS), the Africa focused exploration project generator, announces results from its recently completed first phase exploration programme at its 100% owned, 466km2 Zolowo gold project ("Zolowo" or the "Project") in Lofa County, north-western Liberia.

Highlights:

· Initial reconnaissance has identified over 50 alluvial gold mining sites

· The largest mining site mapped to date is approximately 250m long and 50m wide

· Licence hosts a 33km long Archaean greenstone belt which is the likely gold source

· A systematic stream sediment sampling programme will now be undertaken

Steven Poulton, Chief Executive, commented:

"We are very encouraged by the significant number and scale of the artisanal alluvial gold mining operations discovered at Zolowo. It seems likely that the primary source for the gold is associated with the Archaean age greenstone belt that transects the licence for approximately 33km. The belt sits on the same regional geological trend as the New Liberty Gold Mine which is owned and operated by Avesoro Resources Inc. The Archaean greenstones of western Liberia are still relatively unexplored. This is despite their geological setting being analogous to many famous gold mines and camps such as at Kerr-Addison in Ontario, the Golden Mile in Kalgoorlie and Homestake in the United States. A follow up systematic stream sediment programme is now being planned and we look forward to updating shareholders in due course."

The following figures have been prepared and relate to the disclosures in this announcement and are visible in the version of this announcement on the Company's website (www.altus-strategies.com) or in PDF format by following this link: http://altus-strategies.com/site/assets/files/4300/zolowo.pdf

· Location of the Zolowo project in north-western Liberia is shown in Figure 1.

· Geology and artisanal workings within the Zolowo licence is shown in Figure 2.

· Photos of typical alluvial gold mining sites at Zolowo is shown in Figure 3.

Reconnaissance exploration programme

Zolowo was selected after comprehensive in-house analysis of available datasets including geological maps, historic mineral occurrences and satellite imagery. An initial reconnaissance exploration programme has now been completed at Zolowo. The objective of the programme was to verify a number of potential artisanal mining sites, as interpreted from the remote sensing programme.

The prospecting work has confirmed the presence of numerous artisanal alluvial gold mining sites. Over 50 separate workings have now been visited by Altus to date, clustered within the central part of the licence. Of these, 35 were found to be active and the largest extended for approximately 250m. At each working up to 25 artisanal miners were found to be selectively mining gold bearing gravels, often at the boundary between saprolite and bedrock. It was reported that gold has been mined in this way from the Zolowo area since the 1930's. As part of the reconnaissance programme a number of hard rock samples have been collected for assaying.

Figure 1. Location of the Zolowo project in north-western Liberia

http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/7576C_-2018-1-24.pdf 

Figure 2. Geology and artisanal workings within the Zolowo licence.

http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/7576C_1-2018-1-24.pdf

Figure 3. Photos of typical alluvial gold mining sites at Zolowo

http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/7576C_2-2018-1-24.pdfAbout the Zolowo Licence

The 466km2 Zolowo exploration licence is located in Lofa County, north-western Liberia and approximately 190km northeast of the capital, Monrovia. The original licence application submitted by the Company was for an area of 732km2. Hosting the regional town of Zorzor, the licence contains a main road which links the towns of Gbarnga (60km to the south) and Voinjama (70km to the north), the latter of which has a domestic airport. Zolowo contains numerous alluvial gold mining camps and an Archaean greenstone belt that forms a prominent ridge for approximately 33km across the licence. Zolowo is located on the same NE-SW geological trend as the New Liberty gold mine which is owned and operated by AIM and TSX listed Avesoro Resources Inc ("Avesoro"). New Liberty has a Measured and Indicated Mineral Resource of 9.6Mt containing 985,000 ounces of gold grading 3.2 g/t and an Inferred Mineral Resource of 6.4Mt containing 620,000 ounces of gold grading 3.0 g/t, as reported by Avesoro. The geology of western Liberia is considered analogous to that which hosts the Kerr-Addison mine in Ontario, the Golden Mile in Kalgoorlie and the Homestake mine in the United States.

Qualified Person

The technical disclosure in this regulatory announcement has been read and approved by Steven Poulton, Chief Executive of Altus. A graduate of the University of Southampton in Geology (Hons), he also holds a Master's degree from the Camborne School of Mines (Exeter University) in Mining Geology. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining and a Fellow of the Geological Society of London. He has over 18 years of experience in mineral exploration and is a Qualified Person under the AIM rules and National Instrument 43-101 under the rules of the TSX.

Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure

Certain information contained in this announcement would have been deemed inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 until the release of this announcement.

For further information you are invited to visit the Company's website www.altus-strategies.com or contact:

About Altus Strategies Plc

Altus is a diversified and Africa focused project generator in the natural resource sector. Through our subsidiaries we discover new projects and attract third party capital to fund their growth, development and ultimately exit optionality. This strategy enables Altus to remain focused on the acquisition of new opportunities to be fed into the project generation cycle and aims to minimise shareholder dilution. Our business model is designed to create a growing portfolio of well managed and high growth potential projects which is diversified by commodity and by country. We aim to position our shareholders at the vanguard of value creation, but with significantly reduced risks traditionally associated with investments in the mineral exploration sector.

The following is a summary of the Company's key projects:

Morocco - Copper

The Company holds the 60km2 Agdz copper-silver exploration licence in central Morocco through its 100% owned subsidiary Aterian Resources Ltd. Five prospects have been defined to date, the best of which retuned grades up to 8% Cu, 448 g/t Ag and 3.74 g/t Au. The project is located close to a number of operating mines, notably the recently commissioned Bouskour Cu-Ag mine located 14km NE of Agdz.

Cameroon - Gold

The Company holds the 189km2 Laboum gold exploration licence in northern Cameroon through its 99% owned subsidiary Auramin Ltd. At Laboum an approximately 18km and 5km wide long gold-bearing shear zone has been discovered. In addition close to 1km of quartz veins have been discovered. High resolution ground geophysics and a concurrent gold in soil survey are defining priority targets for a systematic trenching programme. The Laboum licence hosts a number of artisanal gold mining sites and grab samples have returned grades up to 24.50 g/t Au from quartz veins and 6.86 g/t Au from the sheared metasedimentary rocks respectively.

Ethiopia - Copper and Gold

The Company holds the 322km2 Tigray-Afar and Negash copper-silver-gold exploration in northern Ethiopia through its 100% owned subsidiary Altau Resources Ltd and 97.3% owned subsidiary Aluvance Ltd respectively. Four distinct prospects have been identified to date, returning grades of up to 22 % Cu and 102 g/t Ag from surface sampling. Channel results have include 28m at 0.75% Cu, 31m at 0.50% Cu, 4m at 3.22% Cu & 6m at 1.46% Cu and drilling has returned grades of up to 1.14% Cu and 10.2 g/t Ag over widths up to 15.5m. The Company also holds the 412km2 Daro exploration licence, located in northern Ethiopia, which targets VMS style copper-gold deposits. Daro hosts a significant number of alluvial and hard rock artisanal gold mines while a 2kg float sample of gossanous rock has returned 34.3% Cu.

Cameroon - Bauxite

The Company holds the 601km2 Birsok & Mandoum bauxite exploration licences in central Cameroon through its 97.3% owned subsidiary Aluvance Ltd. The Birsok & Mandoum licences are subject to a joint venture agreement with ASX-listed Canyon Resources Ltd. The project is within 10km of an operating rail line to the port of Douala on the Atlantic Ocean.

Liberia - Gold

The Company holds the 639.6km2 Bella Yella and 466km2 Zolowo gold exploration licences in north-western Liberia through its 99% owned subsidiary Auramin Ltd. The licences target Archaean greenstone-hosted gold deposits. At Bella Yella a 7.5km NE-SW striking gold in soil anomaly has been defined. A number of artisanal gold workings have been discovered, from which rock chip assay results have returned grades up to 233 g/t Au. Zolowo hosts a 33km long greenstone belt from which numerous drainages are being worked by artisanal gold miners.

Cameroon - Iron Ore

The Company holds the 400km2 Bikoula & Ndjele iron ore exploration licences in southern Cameroon through its 97.3% owned subsidiary Aluvance Ltd. The project hosts an independent (JORC 2012 compliant), inferred mineral resource estimate comprising 46Mt @ 44% Fe completed by Coffey Mining South Africa (Pty) Ltd in a report entitled "Mineral Resource Estimation and Classification of the Bikoula Iron Ore Project in Cameroon". The resource estimate is from less than 25% of the 17km long target as identified from airborne geophysics.

Morocco - Other

The Company holds a further 226km2 across five exploration licence across Morocco, through its 100% owned subsidiary Aterian Resources Ltd. The licences areas are prospective for zinc, lead, copper, tin, tungsten and gold. Grades from these licences include 8.15% Pb, 4.48% Zn, 9.18% Cu and 9.61 g/t Au.

Glossary of Terms

The following is a glossary of technical terms:

"Archaean" means an early part of geological time dating from

"Artisanal" means local people conducting mining, often with rudimentary equipment

"Au" means gold

"Assay" or "Assay results" means the analysis of minerals, rocks and mine products to determine and quantify their constituent parts

"Ag" means silver

"Cu" means copper

"Fe" means iron

"Pb" mean lead

"g/t" means grams per tonne

"Grade(s)" means the quantity of ore or metal in a specified quantity of rock

"m" means metres

"Ma" means million years ago

"Moz" means millions of ounces

"Outcrop" means a visible exposure of rock that is in-situ and has no covering of soil or vegetation

"Shear zone" means a zone in which rocks have been deformed by lateral movement along parallel planes

"Quartz Vein" means a fracture which has been filled by quartz and other minerals which have crystallised from mineralised fluids

"Zn" means zinc