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Gold/Mining/Energy : Mining News of Note -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LoneClone who wrote (36622)	5/6/2009 10:06:48 AM
From: LoneClone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 195744

African Eagle expects Tanzania project’s scoping study next month miningweekly.com By: Esmarie Swanepoel 5th May 2009 JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The scoping study for Africa-focused explorer African Eagle Resources’ flagship Dutwa project, in Tanzania, will be completed next month, the Aim- and JSE-listed company said on Tuesday. The scoping study, conducted by GRD Minproc, will evaluate the economics and potential processing methods to be used at the nickel laterite project. African Eagle also said that Dutwa’s resource was likely to increase to 50-million tons, from 31-million tons with a recently-signed option and joint-venture (JV) agreement over the Ngasamo deposit, adjacent to the project. In response to the economic crisis, African Eagle conducted a review of its priorities and strategy during the second half of 2008, during which time the company’s Mozambican operations and most of its advanced projects have been placed on care-and-maintenance. However, the Dutwa project, which was until recently a gold exploration project, has been identified as a top priority, as the company had made one of the most significant base metal discoveries in East Africa, in the last 50 years. “Since the publication of our strategic review, the board and I have been asked why we opted for a course of action that placed a relatively new nickel project discovery ahead of our other projects, some more advanced than Dutwa. In brief, our review showed us that, for each dollar spent, Dutwa would give us the greatest added value, and we therefore made the project our top priority,” African Eagle chairperson John Park said in a statement. Park stated that African Eagle believed the Dutwa project had advantages that were likely to make it viable, even at current low nickel prices. One of the advantages was the fact that acid consumption was lower than any other published nickel laterite world wide, and that the site provided a favourable infrastructure, environmental setting, and relatively easy mining. “By June we will know the likelihood that the Dutwa project will go ahead and the timeframe in which that can happen, and that will place us in a strong position to be able to develop a nickel project that can take advantage of the expected upturn in demand and metal prices,” Park said. He added that African Eagle was fortunate to be developing the project during a downturn, as it would force the company to keep capital and operating costs to a minimum, and to use realistic or pessimistic projections of revenue. “A project which can survive stress testing will be highly profitable when prices recover.” Since the review, African Eagle has placed on hold its Mkushi copper project, in central Zambia, while the company sought additional resources within the highly prospective zone surrounding the central area on which the feasibility study was based. The Makombo project, situated along the Zambian Copperbelt, is no longer a priority, although African Eagle has increased its interest in the licence area in anticipation of a future recognition of value. As far as gold projects were concerned, Park stated that the strategic review enabled the company’s geologists to identify a number of new targets at the Miyabi project, in Tanzania, where it was still expected that resource could increase to one-million ounces, up from the current 520 000 oz. Additionally, African Eagle was currently estimating an internal, non-joint ore reserves compliant compliant gold resource at Igurubi, which the company was expected to announce shortly. “While we have chosen not to direct our cash resources into our gold projects, we hae received a number of approaches, especially with respect to Miyabi and Igurubi, to farm then out, vend them into new vehicles, or even sell them outright. We are currently examining several proposals,” Parks said.