15 Jun 2010 07:00
| AIM: GMA | 15 June 2010 |
GMA Resources plc
("GMA" or the "Company")
Drilling and Trading Update
RC drilling commences and new gold-in-soil anomaly discovered
§ Drilling commences at Amesmessa to build resources
§ Coherent gold-in-soil anomaly identified for follow up
§ Board at an advanced stage in discussions with bond holders and a provider of new equity capital
Drilling programme
GMA is pleased to announce that it has commenced a reverse circulation (RC) drilling programmme at the Amesmessa gold mine in Southern Algeria. The primary objective of the exploration programme in the coming months is to test mineralised zones identified in the recent geochemical and trenching work carried out within the concession. The aim of the exercise is to define a new JORC compliant gold resource to support the planned CIL operation at Amesmessa. A secondary objective is to define shallow heap leach amenable ore for the existing operation.
Drilling is being undertaken with a truck mounted drill rig, owned by ENOR spa ("ENOR"), the Algerian based operating company for the Tirek-Amesmessa project, which is 52 per cent. owned by GMA. ENOR has contracted Spektra Jeotek SA, a Turkish drilling company, to operate the rig.
As announced in April 2010, a remote sensing review was conducted by the Australian mapping specialist firm, Earthscan, to identify alteration zones across the concession to prioritise future exploration targets. The initial phase of this work resulted in the identification of 76 alteration zones within the concession which were considered to be potential loci of gold mineralisation. Some of these alteration targets are located outside of the currently considered mineralised zone and could considerably enhance the potential for new discoveries of gold mineralisation. This new area runs parallel to the existing known mineral occurrences in the south eastern part of the concession. During January and February 2010, the onsite exploration team visited and mapped the majority of the 76 anomalies and subsequently ranked them in terms of their exploration potential.
As part of the regional geochemical program, 2,000 soil samples have been despatched to Genalysis in Australia for low level gold analysis. The first results have been received for 223 samples and of these, 2 samples returned results greater than 1,000 ppb Au, 21 returned results greater than 300 ppb Au and 65 returned results greater than 100 ppb Au. These results show a sharp well defined continuous gold in soil anomaly (>100ppb Au) across 9 separate traverse lines over a currently defined strike length of 2.0kms and an average width in excess of 200m.
Trading update
Further to the previous trading update announced on 7 May 2010 in which the Company stated that it had sufficient cash to meet its operating obligations until the end of June, the Company announces that its Board is now at an advanced stage in discussions with both holders of loan stock currently in issue and a potential provider of new equity capital. The Board expects these discussions to be concluded shortly and a further announcement will be made before the end of the month in conjunction with the publication of the Company's results for the year ended 31 December 2009.
Ken Crichton, Acting Chief Executive Officer of GMA said:
"It is very positive to see our exploration program starting to take shape, especially now we have our own drill rig operating at site. The recent work by Earthscan built on the existing historical database has allowed us to focus on the areas of the highest probability of success. The early results give us some confidence that the exploration strategy we have adopted should be the most cost effective way to deliver some good results.
"We are continuing to work hard to conclude discussions with loan stock holders and a provider of new capital and hope to make an announcement shortly."
Enquiries:
| GMA Resources Plc
| Ken Crichton | +20 (0)10766 6118 |
| Merchant John East Securities Limited (Nomad) | Bidhi Bhoma | +44 (0) 20 7628 2200 |
Notes to Editors:
GMA owns a controlling 52 per cent. stake in ENOR, the Algerian based operating company for the Tirek-Amesmessa project, with the remainder owned by Sonatrach, the Algerian state-owned oil and gas company.
ENOR holds the exploitation authorisation to the Tirek-Amesmessa property, an area of some 1,417 km2, located approximately 450km south west of the city, Tamanrasset, in southern Algeria. Amesmessa is an open pit heap leach gold mine located in the extreme south of the permit area. The now closed Tirek mine site is located centrally in the northern third of the exploration permit area, some 60 km north of Amesmessa. Research to date suggests that the Zita Zone, which lies between Tirek and Amesmessa, offers considerable potential for the development of additional prospects amenable to open-pit mining. GMA plans to quickly expand upon resources outside of the major 80km Tirek-Amesmessa fault north/south of the concession.
GMA's shares are traded on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange (AIM: GMA).
For further information on the Company, please visit: www.gmaresources.co.uk