Asa Resources Regulatory News (ASA)

15 Dec 2005 07:01

Mwana Africa PLC15 December 2005 Mwana Africa PLC (formerly African Gold plc) Interim Statement The first half of the financial year saw solid progress with exploration ofMwana Africa PLC, ("The Company") gold assets in Ghana. It also finished justbefore a major step forward in the development of African Gold plc ("AfricanGold"). As a result of the merger completed in October between African Gold andMwana Africa Holdings (Proprietary) Limited ("Mwana") the Company is now a trulymulti-commodity, pan-African group. This merger was the culmination of a longterm strategy to develop African Gold into a broad based African naturalresources business with both exploration and production assets. However, it isonly the first stage in the growth of Mwana Africa PLC as a major resourcesbusiness, able to exploit opportunities across the African continent. GHANA Highlights • Discovery of a new mineralized vein system at the Leopard prospect with widespread high grade gold mineralization. • Initial drilling of the Boabedroo mine outlines wide zones of low grade sulphide mineralization. • Grant of the Kurofa prospecting licence and completion of soil geochemical exploration. • Continued trenching outlines encouraging grades on the east limb of the Banka structure, confirming drilling targets. • Acquisition of airborne geophysical and soil geochemical data for Ahanta, indicating over four kilometres of mineralized shears, warranting a drilling programme. Konongo Following on the success of the Obenemase sulphide drilling programme, a newmineralized vein system was discovered at the Leopard prospect, an area whichhad been ignored by exploration for over 50 years, prior to the acquisition ofthe licence by African Gold in 2004. Drilling has outlined a series of sulphidicquartz veins with a strike length of over 400 kilometres, to a depth of 50metres with mineralization open in depth. A further drilling programme has beendesigned to quantify the resource. Better intersections are as follows. Hole ID From(m) Interval(m) Au g/t04LERC003 56.0 2.0 2.1104LERC006 30.0 3.0 5.5804LERC007 15.0 7.0 3.6004LERC015 55.0 3.0 7.9004LERC019 48.0 4.0 3.31 55.0 1.0 6.90 63.0 1.0 10.5004LERC022 35.0 1.0 14.7004LERC051 24.0 4.0 7.4405LERC058 63.0 3.0 5.1205LERC063 61.0 2.0 3.0405LERC072 77.0 1.0 9.26 Drilling beneath the Boabedroo open pit intersected wide zones of sulphidemineralization in the walls of the old underground workings, indicatingsignificant potential for a wide bulk mineable body. Better intersections are asfollows: Hole ID From(m) Inte Au g/t05BBSDD001 155.0 9.0 1.22 169.0 9.0 2.5405BBSDD007 92.0 2.0 21.34 135.0 10.0 5.6205BBNDD001 4.0 28.0 1.24 101.0 3.0 2.5905BBNDD002 135.0 4.0 2.1505BBNDD003 119.0 17.0 1.9205BBNDD005 142.0 16.0 0.93 Kurofa A prospecting licence surrounding the Konongo lease was granted in June 2005.The licence covers prospective ground north and east of Konongo includingseveral high quality targets identified by interpretation of geophysical data. Asoil geochemical sampling programme was completed over the whole area, outliningseveral significant gold anomalies for follow-up. Banka Geological mapping and trenching continued at Banka to better define the limitsof surface gold mineralisation in the Banket conglomerate. Significant goldvalues have now been traced over wide intervals for over 3.2 kilometres on theeastern limb of the structure, warranting a first pass drilling programme. Thework to date has confirmed the potential of the east limb to host a significantgold resource. Ahanta The Ahanta project lies at the southern limit of the Ashanti gold belt. Airbornegeophysics was acquired for the whole area of the prospecting licence,indicating several major shear structures on the margins of the greenstone belt.Gold in soil geochemical anomalies have been outlined over a total strike lengthof 8 kilometres in parallel structures on the shears and trenching in thecentral portion of the eastern anomaly has defined a 1.2 kilometre bedrock goldanomaly with +1.0 g/t Au over widths of up to 32 metres. The potential for a large bulk mineable gold deposit is considered to be veryhigh and drilling is planned for early in 2006. Zimbabwe We are in the process of integrating the African Gold operations into the Mwanaoperations and we will report back to shareholders on the way forward. DEVELOPMENTS SINCE THE END OF THE INTERM PERIOD ON 30TH SEPTEMBER 2005 ACQUISITION OF MWANA The acquisition of major producing, exploration and development assets in Africathrough the acquisition of Mwana in October this year, has transformed theCompany into a cash generative production and exploration company. In 2004,Mwana produced 30,000oz gold at the Freda Rebecca mine, and 10,500 tonnes nickelat the Bindura Nickel operation in Zimbabwe. The merger enables the Company tocapitalise on new development and exploration opportunities across Africa andgives access to substantial acquisition prospects in Ghana, Zimbabwe, theDemocratic Republic of the Congo ("DRC") and elsewhere in Africa. FINANCES The Company has completed two recent fund raisings. In October 2005 the Companyraised £4.35 million to fund the costs of the merger of African Gold and Mwanaand raise additional working capital. On 12 December 2005 The Company announcedthat it had raised £13.1 million in order to take forward identifiedopportunities both in DRC and Zimbabwe. Following these transactions the totalnumber of issued shares of the Company will be 178,221,154 ordinary shares of10p each. Our strategy is to seek joint venture partners for our exploration prospects inboth the DRC and Ghana and I am happy to report that we have made substantialprogress on discussions with third parties. BOARD & MANAGEMENT We are pleased to welcome Ken Owen to the Board as Technical Director. He willsucceed Tim Wadeson who as a founding director of Mwana has played such animportant part in the early development of the Mwana Group. Tim will continue asa Non Executive Director. Ken Owen is a senior mining engineer with over 30 years experience in theindustry, most recently as a mining consultant for SRK. His experience workingthroughout Africa, culminating in becoming Senior Vice President Mining forAnglo American Corporation of South Africa, and in different resources will be agreat help to Mwana. He will take on the responsibility for technicaldevelopment from Tim Wadeson, building on Tim's excellent work since theformation of Mwana Group. In addition, we are pleased to also welcome Stuart Morris who will be joiningthe Board as a Non-Executive Director and has agreed to assume the role ofChairman of the Audit Committee. Stuart brings to the Company huge experience from his time at KPMG when he wasChairman of KPMG Africa and a member of the KPMG International Executive &Board. From 1999 until 2004 Stuart was also Group Financial Director of NedbankGroup Limited. CHANGE OF REGISTERED OFFICE ADDRESS With effect from today, the registered office address of the Company will beDevon House, 12-15 Dartmouth Street, London SW1H 9BL. Our Company has an exciting future. I would like to thank all those people whohave contributed to the success of the Company under the name African Gold plcand to look forward to the opportunities presented by the creation and growthof Mwana Africa PLC. Oliver BaringChairman MWANA AFRICA PLC (FORMERLY AFRICAN GOLD PLC) Financial Information (Unaudited) Six Months Ended 30.09.05 30.09.04 £'000 £'000Group Profit and LossTurnover 0 3Operating Costs (334) (225) Operating (Loss) (334) (222)Taxation 0 0 (Loss) for the period (334) (222) ======== ======== (Loss) per share (.11p) (.09p) ======== ======== Six Months Ended 30.09.05 30.09.04 £'000 £'000Group Balance SheetFixed Assets 6,976 4,172 Current Assets 222 489Current Liabilities (779) (382) Current Assets less Current Liabilities (557) 107 Total Liabilities less Assets 6,419 4,279 ======== ======== Share Capital and Reserves 6,419 4,279 ======== ======== 30.09.05 30.09.04 £'000 £'000Group Cash FlowNet Cash Inflow from Operating Activities (257) (132) Returns on Investments and Servicing of Finance 0 0Capital Expenditure (730) (4,125)Financing - Issue of Ordinary Share Capital 100 4,666 Decrease in Cash (887) 409 ======== ======== Enquiries: Oliver Baring Tel: 020 7654 5588Chairman Mwana Africa PLC Tom Randell / Maria Suleymanova Tel: 020 7653 6620Merlin This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange