BHR.L Regulatory News (BHR)

16 Jul 2007 07:00

Carnegie Minerals plc16 July 2007 Carnegie Minerals Plc ("Carnegie" or the "Company") Substantial Drilling Programme Completed in Southern Senegal Carnegie Minerals Plc (AIM - CME), the mineral sands resource company withproduction interests in The Gambia and advanced exploration in adjoiningSenegal, is pleased to announce it has now completed a significant drillingprogramme in its Southern Senegal licence area and is sending all sand sampleswith visually noticeable heavy mineral grades for assaying at independentlaboratories in Australia. Drilling - Southern Senegal Carnegie's exploration team has successfully completed a two-month, 8,000 linemetre drilling programme in Southern Senegal, using Wallis Drilling's air-corerig. Drilling was focused on testing linear magnetic and radiometric explorationtargets, identified by the high-resolution airborne survey carried out by theCompany in late 2006. In the northern part of the Company's licence area, near the recently exploredNiafarang deposit, 502 holes were drilled to an average depth of 8 metres.Additionally 168 holes were drilled at a high dune area near Cap Skiring in thesouth to an average depth of 23 metres. All drill holes were sampled at 1.5 metre intervals and all sand samples withvisually noticeable heavy mineral grades are being sent for assaying atindependent laboratories in Australia, after preliminary processing in Senegal. Based on the assaying results, Carnegie will plan follow-up exploration in boththe northern and southern parts of the licence area, as well as drill testingthe eastern part that was not able to be drilled during this programme due tothe onset of the rainy season. Carnegie has already started negotiations on thereturn of an air-core drilling rig to Southern Senegal for this work during thecoming dry season. Carnegie Minerals Managing Director, Alan Hopkins, said: "The completion of this phase of the exploration drilling programme in SouthernSenegal is another significant milestone for the Company. We are looking forwardto getting the laboratory results, as this area holds significant potential toexpand the scale of this cross border project. "With our capability building in our production area at Sanyang South, and thecompletion of the Southern Senegalese exploration drilling, Carnegie is nowpoised to build a strong value platform for shareholders." - Ends - For further information, call: Alan Hopkins, Managing Director, Carnegie Minerals Plc 020 7831 3113 Romil Patel / Olly Cairns, Blue Oar Securities Plc 020 7448 4400 Billy Clegg/Edward Westropp, Financial Dynamics 020 7831 3113 Notes to editors: Carnegie only listed on AIM in August 2006. It has already brought into fullproduction three dredges and is on track to meet its 2007 production targets inThe Gambia. It has completed a high resolution airborne geophysical survey overits Southern Senegal licence area and undertaken a follow up explorationdrilling programme of many of the targets generated. All exploration in Senegal is 50% co funded by Astron Ltd (the largestindependent buyer of zircon in China), with the emerging production in TheGambia fully funded by Astron Ltd (a 50% partner in each project). This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange