UPDATED RESOURCE ESTIMATE OF 520,000 OUNCES GOLD FOR THE MIYABI GOLD PROJECT, TANZANIA
News Report
21 March 2006
African Eagle's continuing drilling programme at Miyabi is designed to improve the statistical confidence in the known ore bodies and to increase the overall resource base. The Company's intentions are to delineate an economic resource which could be brought into production and to demonstrate the existence of additional resources within and near the Miyabi mineralised corridor.
The Company considers that these latest results demonstrate reasonable potential for economic extraction at Miyabi. Future drilling to enlarge the resource will be part of an economic pre-feasibilty study. The metallurgical test results announced on 20th January have already demonstrated that the gold is extractable by conventional leaching.
The new resource estimate was made by SRK Consulting in accordance with the Australasian Code for the Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves (the JORC Code), using data from 30 cored drill holes and 265 RC percussion drill holes. See the technical information section below for details of the methods used and a table of the categorised resource estimates for each of the seven mineralised bodies.
Using a cut-off grade of 0.5g/t, appropriate to Tanzanian deposits of the Miyabi type, the total resource is 12.4Mt at a grade of 1.3g/t, containing 520,000 ounces of gold. Of this, 71% is in the Indicated category.
Grade sensitivity analysis revealed that at 1g/t cut off the resource is 6.3Mt at 1.82 g/t containing 370,000 ounces of gold and at nil cut off the resource is 14.4Mt at 1.15g/t containing 532,000 ounces of gold.
Mark Parker, Managing Director comments "This result increases our geological understanding and brings us much closer to developing a mineable asset, with a good level of confidence. Our Miyabi team's next task is to add significantly to the total by drilling the Ngaya and Shambani South zones, together with new targets identified from recent IP and magnetic surveys. This will lead into an economic feasibility study".
Technical information
Prior to calculating the resource, SRK carried out an audit of the drilling, sampling and assay methods and the quality control checks performed by the Company.
SRK then modelled the gold-bearing zones using block models aligned to the strike. The grades of the blocks were interpolated from the 3m composite drill hole assay data by Ordinary Kriging with search ellipses optimised for each zone. A cut-off grade of 0.5g/t was applied.
The following table sets out the in-situ Mineral Resource for the seven ore bodies. Classification of the Mineral Resource is based on quality control data, geological continuity and borehole spacing.
Zone |
Resource category |
Tonnage (Mt) |
Grade (g/t) |
Ounces |
Faida |
Indicated |
3,460,000 |
1.52 |
170,000 |
|
Inferred |
960,000 |
0.89 |
30,000 |
Kilimani |
Indicated |
2,610,000 |
1.40 |
120,000 |
|
Inferred |
280,000 |
1.56 |
10,000 |
Shambani Main |
Indicated |
690,000 |
1.92 |
40,000 |
|
Inferred |
180,000 |
1.74 |
10,000 |
Shambani N |
Indicated |
880,000 |
1.09 |
30,000 |
|
Inferred |
350,000 |
1.06 |
10,000 |
Shambani S |
Inferred |
290,000 |
1.30 |
10,000 |
Ngaya |
Indicated |
230,000 |
1.01 |
10,000 |
|
Inferred |
1,460,000 |
1.06 |
50,000 |
North Zone |
Inferred |
960,000 |
0.80 |
50,000 |
TOTAL |
Indicated |
7,880,000 |
1.45 |
370,000 |
|
Inferred |
4,490,000 |
1.01 |
150,000 |
|
Total |
12,370,000 |
1.29 |
520,000 |
Note : appropriate rounding may have resulted in apparent summation errors
John Park
Chairman African Eagle Resources plc
African Eagle Resources plc
Information in this report relating to the estimation of Mineral Resources is based on data compiled by SRK Consulting (UK) Ltd, who act as consultants to the Company. The estimation was supervised by Mr Martin Pittuck whom SRK consider to satisfy the criteria for a Competent Person in accordance with the Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves (the JORC Code, 2004). Mr Pittuck has in excess of ten years Mineral Resource experience relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and is a full-time employee of SRK. SRK consents to the inclusion of the data in the form and context in which it appears.