Caledonia Min Regulatory News (CMCL)

21 Dec 2005 14:21

Caledonia Mining Corporation21 December 2005 CALEDONIA MINING CORPORATION CALEDONIA Announces An Initial Resource Estimate for the ROOIPOORT PGE/Au/Ni/Cu Project, South Africa. Toronto, Ontario - December 21, 2005: Caledonia Mining Corporation ("Caledonia")(TSX: CAL, NASDAQ-OTCBB: CALVF, AIM: CMCL) is pleased to announce completion ofthe 2005 drill program on the Rooipoort and Grasvally properties that make upthe Rooipoort Project in South Africa, and of the compilation of an independentresource calculation for the property. Highlights • Drilling completed on 54 holes comprising 18,450 meters core along some 7,000 meters of strike. • RSG Global has completed an independent resource calculation and declared an Inferred Mineral Resource as summarised below: Inferred Resource at 0,5 g/t 2PGE+Au cut off and 900m (amsl) base (-200m below surface) Zone Ave True Width (m) Tonnes 2PGE+Au (g/t) Ni (%) Cu (%) M2 1.8 12,791,000 1.34 0.20 0.12 L3 1.3 5,337,000 1.15 0.15 0.10 • The M2 and L3 zones are separated by a stratigraphic distance of approx. 300 meters (375 meters horizontal). • These inferred resources equate to a metal content of 274,000 oz Pt; 428,000 oz Pd; 47,000 oz Au; 73.42million lb Ni and 44.33million lb Cu. • Preliminary metallurgical work completed earlier on comparable grade material derived from split borehole core coarse fractions indicates that much of this in situ resource will be recoverable using conventional metallurgical extraction techniques. • Exploration drilling on Rooipoort and adjoining areas of Grasvally has identified additional mineralisation potential. A work programme is under consideration to follow up these target areas. Project Details The Rooipoort Project is owned and operated by Eersteling Gold Mining CompanyLtd. ("EGMC") (a wholly owned subsidiary of Caledonia) and located -10km southof Mokopane at the southern end of the Northern Limb of the Bushveld Complex.The project area consists of a total area of -4,404ha. The properties are whollycontrolled by EGMC. A Qualified Persons Report detailing the drill and assay results, the geologicalsetting and the independent resource calculation is available on the on theCaledonia website at: www.caledoniamining.com. Maps showing the location of theproperty are included in the Report. The Qualified Persons Report and independent resource calculation was preparedby the Johannesburg office of RSG Global, an Australian consulting company, toNI 43-101 standards and will be filed on SEDAR. The qualified person for the Rooipoort/Grasvally project is Mr. Eric Roodt, anemployee of EGMC. Mr Roodt is registered as a Professional Natural Scientistwith the South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions. The resource estimate is the work of Dr. Julian Verbeek supported by Mr. KenLomberg, both of RSG Global. Dr. Verbeek is an experienced geologist andgeostatistician and has worked on numerous base and precious metal deposits in awide variety of terrains including igneous intrusions, massive and disseminatedsulphides, sedimentary hosted base metals and shear hosted deposits. Part of hisPhD thesis focussed on differentiation trends in mafic intrusions. Dr. Verbeekis a member of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Mr. Lomberg isalso an experienced geologist and geostatistician with similar broad experienceand is expert in Bushveld PGE deposits. Mr. Lomberg is registered as aProfessional Natural Scientist with the South African Council for NaturalScientific Professions. Assay work was carried out on half drill core split with a diamond saw blade atEGMC facilities in Mokopane. Samples were assayed at the Johannesburg laboratoryof SGS/Lakefield by fire assay with a lead collector and ICP-OES finish for Pt,Pd and Au and XRF on pressed pellets for Ni, Cu and Cr . Standard referencematerial supplied by Mintek and blank material was inserted into every batch andmake up approximately 5% of the samples assayed. Referee splits of sample pulpswere sent to Genalysis Laboratory in Perth, Western Australia for analyses byfire assay with lead collector and ICP-MS finish for Pt, Pd and Au and multiacid dissolution and flame atomic absorption spectrometry finish for Ni, Cu andCr For more information, please contact: Stefan Hayden Alex Buck / Nick BiasPresident and CEO, Caledonia Mining buck-biasTel: +27 11 447 2499 Tel: +44 7932 740 452 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange