Strategic Minerals Regulatory News (SML)

21 April 2016

Strategic Minerals plc

("Strategic Minerals" or the "Company" or the "Group")

Permit of Works application lodged for Hanns Camp nickel-copper sulphide target

Maiden drilling programme planning underway at Hanns Camp

Strategic Minerals PLC (AIM: SML; USOTC: SMCDY) is pleased to announce that the planning of the maiden drilling programme at Hanns Camp nickel-copper sulphide prospect is underway and the Permit of Work ("PoW") has been lodged with the West Australian Department of Mines. Hanns Camp forms part of the Laverton Project, of which Strategic Minerals recently secured an interest via its acquisition of up to 50% of Central Australian Rare Earths Pty Ltd ("CARE").

Highlights

· Maiden drilling programme planning underway for Hanns Camp nickel-copper sulphide target

· First nickel focussed drilling to be completed since late 1970s

· Drilling expected to commence mid-late May once permit received

· Nickel-copper target analogous to World class Nova Discovery in Western Australia

Hanns Camp is located 250km north-east of the city of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, which is 12km north-east of the town of Laverton in the North-Eastern Goldfields region of Western Australia. The prospect is easily accessible using existing tracks from Laverton, one of the main Goldfields towns. The prospect comprises three distinct targets spaced approximately 800m apart in a NNW-SSE direction. Each prospect is supported by a strong electromagnetic ("EM") conductor beneath anomalous copper-nickel regolith geochemistry. It is these three targets that will be the subject of the coming drilling programme.

The PoW is expected to be granted within the coming weeks and the detailed planning of the maiden drilling programme is in its final stages with drilling expected to commence mid to late May.

This programme will be the first nickel focussed drilling to be completed in this area since the late 1970s. Historic work includes 15 percussion holes that were completed in the area during the 1970s, highlights of which include 2m @ 1.36% nickel from 24m downhole. This historic data combined with recent geophysical data and a prospectivety review is forming the basis of this maiden drill programme.

A map of the region and the proposed drilling targets can be found on the Company's website under the CARE project.

The Company's Chairman, Mr Alan Broome OAM, said:

 "The lodgement of Permit of Work with the West Australian Government is an exciting first step on the road to assessing our interest in the tenements known as Hanns Camp at Laverton. Current planning has drilling expected in mid to late May in line with our previous announcement. We look forward to keeping the market abreast of developments relating to the drilling programme as they unfold."

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Notes to Editors

Strategic Minerals plc is a minerals production and development company registered in the UK and listed on the AIM market (AIM: SML) of the London Stock Exchange. The Company has projects in the United States of America and Australia. The Company is focused on acquiring and developing cash generative, high quality projects which meet local market demand for commodities. 

In September 2011, Strategic Minerals purchased its first cash generating asset, the Cobre magnetite tailings dam project in New Mexico, USA which it brought into production in 2012 and continues to provide a revenue stream for the Company. The Company acquired, in January 2016, a 50% interest in Central Australian Rare Earths which holds tenements in Western Australia and the Northern Territory that are prospective for nickel sulphides and rare earths.