RNS Number : 2497U
African Minerals Ltd
13 May 2008
For immediate release
13 May 2008
African Minerals Limited
("African Minerals" or "the Company")
Strategic Investment
African Minerals Limited (AIM:AMI), the mineral exploration company with significant
interests in Sierra Leone, West Africa, is pleased
to announce that it has acquired 11,425,000 fully paid ordinary shares in Baobab Resources plc
("Baobab") representing an interest of
approximately 17.56% in the ordinary shares of Baobab, an AIM-listed company (AIM:BAO) with a
balanced portfolio of projects in the Republic
of Mozambique. Baobab has exclusive long term tenure of 3,799km2 with projects at varying
stages of development, ranging from advanced
resource definition drill targets to brownfield exploration, and greenfield prospects
targeting an array of commodities.
The shares were acquired on the basis of the issue and exchange of one fully-paid common
share of US$0.01 in the Company ("AML Shares")
for every ten fully-paid ordinary shares in Baobab held by the vendor in an off-market
transaction. As a result of the transaction, a total
of 1,142,500 AML Shares are to be issued to the vendors, which as at the closing price of an
AML share on 12 May 2008 amounts to £2.18M.This represents 0.725% of the 157,608,241 common shares in issue prior to the transaction. Application will be made to admit the AML Shares
for trading on AIM, which is expected to be on or around 20 May 2008, following which the
total issued share capital of the Company will be
158,750,741 common shares.
Principal assets include:
* The Tete Project, featuring Iron-Titanium-Vanadium mineralisation, with the
potential for high grade magnetite mineralisation to
extend over a strike length of 25km.
* The Mundonguara Project, a Copper-Gold-Nickel-Silver deposit with historic
production.
The Tete Project area is considered by Baobab to be highly prospective for a number of
mineralisation styles and commodities.Significant potential is noted for iron ore in the form of cumulate magnetite. Selected rock
chip assays have returned significant grades
including 49.7% Iron, 21.7% Titanium, and 0.3% Vanadium. Four significant accumulations of
titaniferous magnetite have been identified to
date, and represent immediate exploration targets for further evaluation.
The area is also considered to have considerable potential for:
* Platinum Group Elements (PGEs) and/or massive Nickel-Copper sulphides
* Uranium mineralisation associated with dykes intruding the Mafic Complex.
The Mundonguara Project underwent mine development in the 1980's. Baobab has an ongoing
exploration program targeting remnant and
extensional mineralisation within the deposit. Underground trench sampling and drilling have
confirmed historically reported grades between
1.6% - 4.6% Copper, 0.32g/t - 2.99g/t Gold and 1.0g/t - 63g/t Silver in various mineralised
shoots. Significant supplementary exploration
potential exists to define incremental mineralisation over a 5km strike length. This is being
investigated with surface exploration
techniques. Baobab has focussed on defining a JORC compliant resource estimate on the
Mundonguara line of strike to lead to staged
feasibility studies. The existing mine development offers an excellent opportunity for near
term production and early cash flow should
sufficient resources be identified.
Other exploration assets target polymetallic base and precious metal deposits, and stacked
vein & supergene gold deposits.
Commenting on the strategic investment, Frank Timis, Executive Chairman of the Company,
said
"We are delighted with our investment in Baobab Resources. Baobab is a company with a
diversified mineral exploration portfolio in
Mozambique, a country which has an investor friendly mining code and actively encourages
foreign investment. Our strategic investment in
Baobab, a company with exploration projects that we believe demonstrates the potential for
significant growth, together with the advancement
of our wholly owned projects provides a solid platform for African Minerals to unlock further
shareholder value. We look forward to
supporting Baobab and its management in realising the potential of their assets."
Notes:
* Technical details of exploration projects and activities provided in this release
are extracted from information freely available
at the Baobab corporate website.
See: http://www.baobabresources.com/
* It should be noted that there has been insufficient exploration to define a Mineral
Resource and it is uncertain if further
exploration will result in the determination of a Mineral Resource.
Enquiries:
African Minerals Limited Tel: +44 (0) 20 7849 3002
Frank Timis
Roy Pitchford
Canaccord Adams Limited Tel: +44 (0) 20 7050 6500
Mike Jones
Robin Birchall
Citigate Dewe Rogerson Tel: +44 (0) 20 7638 9571
Media enquiries: Martin Jackson/Kate Delahunty
Analyst enquiries: Scott Fulton
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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