DRILLING UPDATE FROM MKUSHI COPPER MINES PROJECT
News Report
12 December 2006
African Eagle Resources plc ("the Company", ticker: AIM: AFE) today announces further results from the feasibility study drill programme designed to add to the resource estimate at the Company's nearest production project, the Mkushi Copper Mines in central Zambia. Mineralised drill intercepts included:
The Company is also pleased to announce results from exploration drilling recently completed at the Munda prospect, 4km southeast of H-Zone and the Munshiwemba open pit. This prospect has not previously been drilled. Mineralised drill intercepts from African Eagle's 6 hole test drilling programme included:
African Eagle's Managing Director Mark Parker comments: "These excellent results from the feasibility drilling at our core H-Zone deposit continue to show the substantial width and high grade of copper mineralisation. The new exploration drill results reveal another important mineralised body at Munda, which lies on a separate mineralised trend parallel to and 4km south of the main copper zone where the feasibility drilling is currently under way. Munda is the fifth mineralised zone at Mkushi to be drill tested by the Company. All five have yielded significant results. More than 40 geophysical IP targets remain to be tested and we believe that the Mkushi area is adding up to a considerable copper region."
The H zone and Coloquo drill results are from resource definition drilling conducted by Central Asia Gold Limited (CAGL), which is managing and funding a bankable feasibility study in the central core area of Mkushi Copper Mines, in partnership with African Eagle.
The core area embraces the Munshiwemba, H-Zone, Coloquo and Mtuga mineralised zones. Munshiwemba zone was mined in the 1960s and 1970s by open pit. It produced 2.2 million tonnes of ore at an average grade of 1% copper but was by no means exhausted therefore the bulk of the deposit is reported to remain. H-Zone is the southwest extension of the Munshiwemba mineralisation, where African Eagle has outlined an independently audited resource containing an estimated 60,000 to 80,000 tonnes of copper, depending on cut-off grade (www.africaneagle.co.uk/news/news-149.html). Mtuga and Coloquo are smaller but high-grade mineralised zones along strike from Munshiwemba and H-Zone. Mtuga was mined by underground workings in the 1920s.
Drill Hole |
Hole Type |
From |
Intersection |
Copper Grade % |
Area |
MH18 |
DD |
77m |
31m |
0.98 |
H Zone |
including |
|
77m |
23m |
1.18 |
|
and |
|
196m |
11m |
1.29 |
|
MH20 |
DD |
209.24 |
17.53 |
0.92 |
H Zone |
and |
|
241.50 |
2.05 |
2.12 |
|
MH24 |
DD |
100m |
97m |
0.54 |
H Zone |
including |
|
115m |
17m |
1.21 |
|
MH39 |
DD |
48m |
17m |
0.60 |
|
MH40 |
DD |
26m |
33m |
0.94 |
H Zone |
MH42 |
DD |
36m |
49m |
0.25 |
H Zone |
including |
|
59m |
9m |
0.41 |
|
MH44 |
DD |
164.35 |
66.10 |
1.03 |
H Zone |
including |
|
164.35 |
10.95 |
2.97 |
|
including |
|
180.00 |
11.32 |
1.99 |
|
MH46 |
DD |
149.48 |
82.68 |
1.66 |
H Zone |
including |
|
149.48 |
22.02 |
1.77 |
|
including |
|
177.50 |
10.14 |
2.11 |
|
including |
|
193.30 |
32.94 |
2.10 |
|
including |
|
229.08 |
3.08 |
2.03 |
|
MC11 |
RC |
21m |
36m |
0.97 |
Coloquo |
including |
|
31m |
26m |
1.14 |
|
CAGL has completed 3,259 m of reverse circulation drilling and 1,317m of diamond drilling since taking over operations in the core area in July 2006, the majority at Munshiwemba and H-Zone. The latest results confirm that substantial widths of copper mineralisation with high grade zones are present at H zone and are expected to lead to an increase in the resource established from African Eagle's drilling prior to July.
While CAGL conducts the feasibility study in the core area, African Eagle is managing the exploration of the rest of the 467 km2 area under the Prospecting Licence, funded pro rata by the two companies. Additional drilling results have been received from the Munda prospect, which lies approximately 4km south of H-Zone, on a mineralised trend parallel to the core zone.
The Munda area was prospected during the 1970's. Three small exploration shafts were sunk and several trenches dug but the area was never drilled. A 1990 report on the exploration potential of the Mkushi Copper Mines project area by ZCCM estimated that the Munda zone could contain up to 8 million tonnes grading 1.2% copper, containing approximately 96,000 tonnes of copper metal. To date, African Eagle has drilled six reverse circulation boreholes at Munda to test strong geophysical induced polarisation (IP) anomalies in the vicinity of the old shafts and trenches. All six holes intersected copper sulphide (chalcopyrite) and three intersected significant mineralised intervals. The copper mineralisation is up to 40m wide and has been traced over a strike length of 1,300m.
Drill Hole |
Hole Type |
From (m) |
Intersection |
Copper Grade % |
MMD3 |
RC |
77m |
40m |
0.48 |
incl. |
|
79m |
5m |
1.21 |
and |
|
91m |
9m |
0.71 |
MMD4 |
RC |
69m |
32m |
0.57 |
incl. |
|
69m |
5m |
1.43 |
and |
|
96m |
5m |
2.04 |
MMD1 |
RC |
0m |
6m |
0.38 |
MMD6 |
RC |
41m |
2m |
0.35 |
The potential for discovery of additional copper mineralised zones is good. The known copper mineralisation gives clear IP anomalies and African Eagle's extensive IP surveys have defined 40 similar anomalies which have yet to be drill tested. The Company believes that these could raise the total estimate of copper metal contained on the licence to 500,000 tonnes.
Over the coming few months, resource definition drilling on a 50 x 50m grid over the core area will continue and a high resolution helicopter airborne magnetic and radiometric survey will be flown.
John Park
Chairman
African Eagle Resources plc
Qualified Person
Information in this report relating to exploration results is based on data reviewed by Mr Christopher Davies BSc, MSc, DIC, Operations Director for African Eagle who is a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, has in excess of 25 years experience in mineral exploration and is a Qualified Person under AIM rules. Mr Davies consents to the inclusion of the information in the form and context in which it appears.