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June 14, 2007
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African Copper Plc-New Resource Estimate for Dukwe Project Enhances Resource
Confidence for Optimised Pit Development
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LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM--(CCNMatthews - June 14, 2007) - African Copper Plc ("African Copper" or the "Company")(TSX:ACU)(AIM:ACU)(BSE:AFRICAN COPPER) -
- Final results have been received from Caracle Creek International Consulting ("CCIC") for the updated resource estimates at the Dukwe Project in Botswana.
- Over 17,000 metres of additional infill and extension drilling are included in these estimates compared to the previous estimates (see the Company's 18 October 2006 press release).
- At a 0.2% Copper Cut-off, CCIC reports an estimated measured and indicated mineral resource of 57.9 million tonnes grading 1.00% copper and an estimated inferred mineral resource of 30.6 million tonnes at 0.88% copper.
- The estimate of material between surface and 175 metres below surface using the same cutoff shows measured and indicated resources of 17.7 million tonnes grading 1.18% copper and an additional inferred resource of 6.3 million tonnes grading 0.87% copper.
- These updated estimates are SAMREC, JORC and National Instrument 43-101 compliant.
- The Company is proceeding immediately with new open pit optimization studies for early exploitation of oxide and supergene zones - results expected in late July 2007.
African Copper Plc ("African Copper" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the results of comprehensive updated mineral resource estimates for the Dukwe Project completed by independent consultants Caracle Creek International Consulting ("CCIC") (See Tables 1 and 2 below). These estimates include a further 17,000 metres of drilling as compared to the estimates previously released in October 2006.
The delivery of these resource estimates are within the scope and timing of the development plan for establishing production from Dukwe on schedule early in 2008. African Copper is proceeding immediately with open pit optimization studies and expects to be able to present mining schedules by the end of July 2007. Surface works have started at the Dukwe site with the establishment of a functioning EPCM camp, access road, power line engineering, water field access and pipeline route. Crushers and ball mill are expected to be delivered shortly to the Dukwe site. Moolman Mining Botswana (Pty) Ltd has begun pre-stripping operations, utilizing a fleet of scrapers, and are expected to commence mobilization of the main load-haul fleet in the third quarter.
"The movement of a substantial amount of material into the Measured Resource category reflects a substantial improvement in our understanding of the grade distribution available during mining at the Dukwe Project," commented Joseph Hamilton, Chief Executive Officer of African Copper. "Construction activities at Dukwe are on-track for production to commence in Q1 of 2008 and the delivery of these resource estimates allows the Company to finalize our mining programme in advance of mobilizing the main mining fleet."
The amount of material that may be converted to reserve categories must await the finalization of open pit designs, in the case of oxide and supergene material, and of the results of underground trial mining, in the case of sulphide material.
Oxide and Supergene Grade Estimation
The material within the limits of the open pit was estimated utilizing a combined dataset of inclined and vertical drillholes. Inclined holes were drilled on a nominal 60 metre by 60 metre drill spacing while vertical holes were drilled in ore on a nominal 20 metre by 20 metre grid to a depth of 150 metres.
Sulphide Grade Estimation
The 38,000 metre drill programme completed over the past year on the sulphide portions of the deposit has improved the confidence of the tonnage and grade estimate in the deeper portion of the deposit. The semi-massive to disseminated nature of mineralization within the breccia-hosted Dukwe deposit leads the Company to believe that a bulk mining method will likely be the most suitable for extraction of the sulphide material. Planning studies are underway, but any conversion of this material to reserves must await the completion of trial mining.
Sulphide Treatment
The host rock which contains the copper mineralization is predominantly coarse grained quartz + calcite +/- graphite with chalcopyrite. The Company has completed preliminary testing of dense media separation ("DMS") methods which may allow a pre-concentration of copper prior to milling and flotation. The results to date are sufficiently encouraging that the Company believes a bulk mining method could be utilized. These mining methods result in high tonnages at lower grades, but the Company believes that a pre-concentration step would allow concentrate production to remain steady with little increase to operating costs and no modification to the mill or concentrator flowsheet. Further testing of DMS technology and centrifugal separation techniques will be completed over the next few months.
African Copper is a tri-listed (AIM, TSX, Botswana Stock Exchange) international exploration and development company. The Company is planning to develop its first copper mine at the Dukwe Project and commence production in 2008. The Company's other interests are the 2,000 sq. km Matsitama exploration concession adjacent to Dukwe, which contains two known copper deposits and numerous base metal exploration targets. African Copper has approximately 131 million shares outstanding.
Mr. Joseph Hamilton, P.Geo., and Chief Executive Officer of African Copper, is a "qualified person" as defined in Canada by National Instrument 43-101. This press release has been prepared under Mr. Hamilton's supervision.
Additional information with respect to the Dukwe Project is contained in a technical report prepared by RSG Global Consulting dated 1 December 2006 and entitled "Dukwe Copper Project: Database Review, Geological Modelling and Grade Estimation of the Dukwe Copper Project". The technical report prepared in conjunction with the resource estimates presented in the tables below will be available on the SEDAR website shortly.
Table 1: NEW DUKWE MEASURED, INDICATED & INFERRED MINERAL RESOURCE ESTIMATES AT VARIOUS CUT-OFFS (EFFECTIVE DATE: 13 JUNE 2007)
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Measured Indicated
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Cut-off % Tonnes Cu% Tonnes Cu%
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0.00 73,809,603 0.40 72,240,583 0.50
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0.20 28,038,486 0.92 29,866,143 1.08
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0.40 19,438,652 1.20 21,473,054 1.39
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0.60 15,642,526 1.37 18,280,963 1.55
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0.80 12,130,451 1.56 15,401,513 1.71
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1.00 9,366,752 1.76 12,334,085 1.91
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1.20 7,600,874 1.91 9,959,595 2.10
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1.40 6,029,065 2.07 8,080,398 2.29
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1.60 4,626,543 2.24 6,363,184 2.50
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1.80 3,422,758 2.44 4,992,257 2.73
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2.00 2,663,714 2.59 3,875,655 2.97
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Total Measured and Indicated Inferred
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Cut-off % Tonnes Cu% Contained Tonnes Cu%
Copper
(Tonnes)
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0.00 146,050,186 0.45 653,919 86,537,921 0.36
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0.20 57,904,629 1.00 580,505 30,559,658 0.88
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0.40 40,911,706 1.30 531,574 22,027,647 1.11
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0.60 33,923,488 1.47 497,093 15,283,392 1.39
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0.80 27,531,964 1.64 452,296 12,606,128 1.53
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1.00 21,700,838 1.84 400,099 10,120,752 1.69
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1.20 17,560,469 2.02 354,734 7,182,100 1.93
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1.40 14,109,463 2.20 309,946 5,230,616 2.17
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1.60 10,989,727 2.39 263,145 3,790,729 2.42
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1.80 8,415,015 2.61 219,641 2,812,161 2.68
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2.00 6,539,370 2.81 184,015 2,109,319 2.94
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---------------------------------------------------------Note: CCIC is an independent consulting firm commissioned by African Copper. The CCIC estimates were prepared by Justin Glanvill H.B.Sc. (an employee of CCIC) under the supervision of Iain Kelso, H.B.Sc., P.Geo., an employee of CCIC and a "Qualified Person" for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101 in Canada. The estimates have been completed to SAMREC, JORC and National Instrument 43-101 definitions and standards. All sample preparation and analyses were completed at ALS Chemex laboratories in Johannesburg (ISO 17025 accredited and independent of African Copper and CCIC). Copper assays are completed using standard preparation of crushing to 70% less than 2 mm followed by splitting and pulverizing to 85% less than 75 micron. Analyses were generally completed utilizing 27 element four-acid ICP-AES in addition to a four-acid ore-grade element digestion followed by ICP-AES. Over-limit analyses were reanalyzed using an ore-grade four-acid digestion with AA or ICP-AES finish. QA/QC procedures included the submission by African Copper of systematic duplicates, blanks and both low-grade and high-grade standard samples within the sample batches submitted to ALS Chemex. Control samples comprise 20% of all samples submitted. Referee analysis for the entire Dukwe dataset has been completed. The results of the QA/QC program for copper analyses have been reviewed by CCIC and Joseph Hamilton, P.Geo. and Chief Executive Officer of the Company. CCIC utilized Ordinary Kriging, coupled with an Indicator Kriging methodology as a guideline to qualify the resource classification, to complete these estimates.
Table 2: ESTIMATED MINERAL RESOURCES AVAILABLE BETWEEN SURFACE AND 175 METRES BELOW SURFACE (EFFECTIVE DATE: 13 JUNE 2007)
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Measured Indicated
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Cut-off % Tonnes Cu% Tonnes Cu%
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0.0 21,138,112 0.64 9,654,480 0.88
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0.2 11,545,976 1.10 6,128,931 1.33
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0.4 9,256,958 1.30 5,317,613 1.49
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0.6 7,511,882 1.49 4,421,060 1.69
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0.8 6,306,721 1.64 3,798,351 1.86
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1.0 5,258,188 1.79 3,174,441 2.05
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1.2 4,333,170 1.93 2,661,944 2.23
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1.4 3,428,668 2.10 2,236,930 2.41
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1.6 2,640,747 2.28 1,856,399 2.59
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1.8 1,980,992 2.48 1,498,673 2.80
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2.0 1,568,549 2.63 1,288,567 2.95
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Total Measured and Indicated
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Cut-off % Tonnes Cu% Contained
Copper
(tonnes)
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0.0 30,792,592 0.72 220,809
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0.2 17,674,908 1.18 209,263
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0.4 14,574,571 1.37 199,870
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0.6 11,932,941 1.57 186,854
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0.8 10,105,072 1.72 174,135
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1.0 8,432,629 1.89 159,004
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1.2 6,995,114 2.05 143,202
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1.4 5,665,598 2.22 125,907
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1.6 4,497,147 2.41 108,416
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1.8 3,479,665 2.62 91,126
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2.0 2,857,116 2.78 79,311
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Inferred
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Cut-off % Tonnes Cu% Contained
Copper
(tonnes)
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0.0 21,437,179 0.29 63,172
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0.2 6,263,293 0.87 54,291
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0.4 4,524,235 1.10 49,648
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0.6 2,773,380 1.49 41,365
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0.8 2,290,625 1.66 38,065
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1.0 1,857,367 1.84 34,194
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1.2 1,512,076 2.01 30,426
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1.4 1,232,858 2.18 26,816
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1.6 966,139 2.36 22,821
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1.8 758,802 2.55 19,347
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2.0 601,604 2.72 16,363
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---------------------------------------------------------Note: The resources estimated in this table are a subset of the total resource estimated by CCIC shown in Table 1 above. CCIC is an independent consulting firm commissioned by African Copper. The CCIC estimates were prepared by Justin Glanvill H.B.Sc. (an employee of CCIC) under the supervision of Iain Kelso H.B.Sc., P.Geo an employee of CCIC and a "Qualified Person" for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101 in Canada. The estimates have been completed to SAMREC, JORC and National Instrument 43-101 definitions and standards. All sample preparation and analyses were completed at ALS Chemex laboratories in Johannesburg (ISO 17025 accredited and independent of African Copper and CCIC). Copper assays are completed using standard preparation of crushing to 70% less than 2 mm followed by splitting and pulverizing to 85% less than 75 micron. Analyses were generally completed utilizing 27 element four-acid ICP-AES in addition to a four-acid ore-grade element digestion followed by ICP-AES. Over-limit analyses were reanalyzed using an ore-grade four-acid digestion with AA or ICP-AES finish. QA/QC procedures included the submission by African Copper of systematic duplicates, blanks and both low-grade and high-grade standard samples within the sample batches submitted to ALS Chemex. Control samples comprise 20% of all samples submitted. Referee analysis for the entire Dukwe dataset has been completed. The results of the QA/QC program for copper analyses have been reviewed by CCIC and Joseph Hamilton P.Geo. and Chief Executive Officer of the Company. CCIC utilized Ordinary Kriging, coupled with an Indicator Kriging methodology as a guideline to qualify the resource classification, to complete these estimates.
This document contains or refers to forward-looking information, including statements regarding the estimation of mineral resources, exploration results, exploration and mine development plans, timing of the commencement of operations and estimates of market conditions, and is based on current expectations that involve a number of business risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from any forward-looking statement include, but are not limited to, failure to convert estimated mineral resources to reserves, the grade and recovery of ore which is mined varying from estimates, capital and operating costs varying significantly from estimates, delays in obtaining or failures to obtain required governmental, environmental or other project approvals, political risks arising from operating in Africa, uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future, changes in equity markets, inflation, changes in exchange rates, fluctuations in commodity prices, delays in the development of projects and the other risks involved in the mineral exploration and development industry. Forward-looking statements are subject to significant risks and uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from expected results. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and the Company assumes no responsibility to update them or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances other than as required by law.
The mineral resource figures for the Dukwe project disclosed in the tables above are estimates and no assurances can be given that the indicated levels of copper will be produced. Such estimates are expressions of judgment based on knowledge, mining experience, analysis of drilling results and industry practices. Valid estimates made at a given time may significantly change when new information becomes available. While the Company believes that the resource estimates disclosed in this press release are well established, by their nature resource estimates are imprecise and depend, to a certain extent, upon statistical inferences which may ultimately prove unreliable. If such estimates are inaccurate or are reduced in the future, this could have a material adverse impact on the Company. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability. There is no certainty that mineral resources can be upgraded to mineral reserves through continued exploration.
Further information about our properties, to download a copy of our Annual Report or any technical report or to access our Press Release Archive please visit www.sedar.com or our website at www.africancopper.com.
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