Asa Resources Regulatory News (ASA)

4 Jun 2007 09:23

Mwana Africa PLC04 June 2007 BASE METALS UPDATE: KIBOLWE PROSPECT- Democratic Republic of Congo Progress towards proving up substantial copper mineralization London, 04 June 2007 - Mwana Africa, the pan-African resource company, ispleased to announce that the exploration programme at its 100% owned Kibolweprospect has produced results that indicate a substantial copper mineralizationsystem. The exploration programme during the 2006/7 season in the Kibolwe prospect areahas delineated a significant secondary enriched copper oxide deposit, which issituated 160km northwest of Lubumbashi (see Figure 1 below orwww.mwanaafrica.com) in the northern portion of Mwana's SEMHKAT licence area inthe Katanga province in the copper belt of the DRC. The Kibolwe mineralization is a sediment-hosted stratiform copper deposit, whichoccurs within Neoproterozoic Katangan Supergroup rocks of the Central AfricanCopper belt. Mineralization is hosted within Roan rocks of the Mines Sub-group.The dominant copper oxide mineral is malachite with minor amounts of cuprite andtenorite, which occur mainly in the argillaceous carbonates with minorconcentrations in the shale units. A total of 8,200m of Reverse Circulation ("RC") drilling has been completed onthe prospect to date. Drilling has outlined four mineralized zones. The MainZone, which is developed on a steep-dipping bed, can be traced over a strike of800m and is open ended to the west and east. It is lenticular and sub-horizontaland has been drilled down to depths of over 50m. Two smaller zones lie above andbelow the main zone with a third, more steeply dipping zone developed to thenorth. Results in Table 1 report only visibly mineralised samples from the MainZone (intersections are in excess of 4m width and 2% Cu.). Table 1. From To Cu% Width (m) Hole ID (m) (m) (Down Hole)* C13 14 34 2.32 20 C14 42 50 2.81 8 C16 26 42 3.70 16 C17 43 50 3.37 7 D14 25 32 2.13 7 D16 7 23 3.60 16 D17 23 36 2.13 13 E13 24 27 2.83 5 E14 47 53 2.89 6 E15 15 26 2.55 11 E16 4 16 2.91 12 G13 18 29 4.19 11 G14 4 12 4.64 8 G15 16 26 3.84 10 H16 6 11 3.86 5 H17 7 20 3.79 13 J10 30 46 3.56 16 L11 21 34 2.23 13 L13 9 46 2.13 37 L14 30 34 4.27 4 M10 4 08 3.51 4 M13 13 28 3.11 15 M13 29 43 6.43 14 M14 21 28 2.78 7 O11 24 32 3.44 8 O11 33 48 2.79 15 O12 26 33 3.63 7 P10 10 27 2.53 17 P11 16 24 2.45 8 P12 35 39 4.30 4 R12 7 45 2.90 38 R13 6 16 5.29 10 S10 24 41 2.03 17 S10 42 48 4.01 6 S11 41 46 2.61 5 S13 13 18 2.24 5 S14 6 12 3.29 6 U13 40 45 6.79 5 * The angle of intersections with the strata was about 40-50 degrees An RC drill programme covering a total of over 2,000m is scheduled to commencein June 2007 in order to test similar rock strata and structural elements mainlyto the east of the Kibolwe deposit. In addition to this a previously identifiedprospect and two newly identified prospective occurrences within a 10km radiusof Kibolwe are being followed up. Kalaa Mpinga, CEO of Mwana Africa, commented, "I am impressed with theconsistently good copper grades from one drill line to the next, indicating goodcontinuity. The promising results so far enable us to fast-track Kibolwe topre-feasibility stage by the end of this year. We expect to commence our firstmajor development work in our Katanga copper belt licence area at Kibolwe in2008." Charl du Plessis, Vice President Exploration of Mwana, who holds a PhD and is aMember of the AusIMM, is a "Qualified Person" as defined in the AIM Rules, andhas reviewed the information disclosed herein. Enquiries: Oliver Baring, Executive ChairmanTel: 020 7654 5588Mwana Africa plc Tom Randell / Maria SuleymanovaTel: 020 7653 6620Merlin Mark WilliamsTel: 020 7050 6500Canaccord Adams Notes to Editors Mwana is the 100% beneficial owner of the 9689km2 SEMKHAT exploration licence inthe copper belt area of the Katanga Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo.Mwana's significant land holdings in this area were selected for the highpotential for discovery of base metals, and cover what is understood to beextensions to the world class mining properties on the Congo part of theLufilian Arc, home to such major copper orebodies as Tenke, Fungurume, Kov,Kamoto, and lead / zinc orebodies such as Kipushi. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange