DRILL RESULTS CONFIRM PROMISE AND IOCG STYLE MINERALISATION AT EAGLE EYE, ZAMBIA
News Report
10 February 2004
African Eagle has received the first results from its drilling and trenching programmes at the Eagle Eye copper and precious metals project in Zambia. The programme was designed to test some of many targets identified within an extensive copper bearing zones revealed by the Company's geochemical and geological surveys. The results to date show mineralised zones up to 66 metres wide containing higher grade zones with up to 5% copper.
Chris Davies, African Eagle's Operations Director, commented "Eagle Eye is a large mineralised system which we have only pinpricked by drilling so far. We were able to complete 11 of 30 planned drill holes and the results show the highly prospective nature of Eagle Eye. The assays from these first holes confirm the presence of a large area of copper mineralisation containing narrower, richer copper and silver bearing zones. These results and the geology revealed by the drilling confirm an Iron Oxide Copper Gold association.
Much of the geochemical anomaly remains to be tested and the Company will resume the drilling programme after the rainy season finishes in late April".
The Eagle Eye prospect lies within African Eagle's Sasare licence in eastern Zambia. Exploration undertaken by African Eagle and described in the Company's news release dated 18 October 2003, revealed extensive copper in soil anomalies. Detailed mapping along these anomalous zones revealed widespread hydrothermal alteration and outcropping copper mineralisation of iron-oxide-copper-gold style (IOCG).
African Eagle designed a programme of reverse circulation (RC) drilling to test numerous targets within the extensive anomalous copper zones. Eleven drill holes of total 1437 metres were successfully completed before the onset of heavy rains in late December 2003. Drill samples were collected over 1m intervals and composited over 3m for assay. Laboratory results now received included the following intersections, which lie within broader mineralised zones up to 80m across.
|
Prospect |
Hole or Trench |
From (m) |
To (m) |
Interval (m) |
Copper (%) |
Silver (g/t) |
Gold (g/t) |
|
Mweze |
MZR11 |
138 |
150 |
12 |
3.0 |
||
|
incl |
141 |
147 |
6 |
5.0 |
|||
|
and |
138 |
147 |
9 |
14.5 |
|||
|
MZR6 |
15 |
48 |
33 |
0.5 |
|||
|
incl |
18 |
21 |
3 |
12.5 |
|||
|
MZR9 |
36 |
48 |
12 |
1.1 |
|||
|
incl |
39 |
48 |
9 |
6.6 |
|||
|
and |
42 |
45 |
3 |
0.2 |
|||
|
MZR13 |
0 |
6 |
6 |
0.7 |
|||
|
MZNET4A |
22 |
0.9 |
|||||
|
Eagle Eye |
EER6 |
30 |
42 |
12 |
0.8 |
||
|
EER12 |
54 |
66 |
12 |
1.0 |
|||
|
incl |
9 |
4.5 |
In addition to the drilling, African Eagle carried out chip channel sampling of trenches to the north and northeast of Mweze prospect, to investigate the strike extension of the copper anomaly. These provided further encouraging results, including 22 metres at 0.9% copper from trench MZNET4A situated 600 metres northeast of Mweze. Earlier grab sampling in the same area returned values of 8.7 and 2.9 g/t gold.
African Eagle will resume drilling at Eagle Eye at the commencement of the dry season in April-May 2004. In addition, detailed geochemical soil sampling, ground magnetic and IP geophysical surveys, geological and alteration mapping will be extended towards the north-east to test anomalous areas defined from last year's reconnaissance sampling.
A map showing the geology of Eagle Eye and the locations of the drill holes may be found on the Company's web site at www.africaneagle.co.uk/projects-sasare.html
John Park
Chairman
African Eagle Resources plc
+44 20 72 48 60 59 Fax +44 20 76 91 77 45 email info@africaneagle.co.uk