Tuesday 20 July 2010

African Aura defines major iron ore target at Nkout, Cameroon

African Aura Mining (LON:AAAM, TSX-V:AUR) has defined a major iron ore target at the Nkout project in southern Cameroon, following an airborne survey. In addition to the major geophysical anomaly, with an 8km strike length, the company also identified a further 12 km of targets at Nkout.

"Until today this asset was not valued in our portfolio. The results from the airborne geophysical survey at Nkout and our surrounding projects in Southern Cameroon are nothing short of highly encouraging,” African Aura president & CEO Luis da Silva commented.

African Aura has received the interpretation of data from a recently completed ground and 14,000km (line) high-resolution airborne geophysical survey, covering the Nkout, Ngoa and Akom iron ore projects.

The Nkout data suggests the presence of an east-west striking antiform with two limbs approximately 100m thick and magnetic susceptibilities of around 2.0, which the company highlighted as being consistent for a prospective banded iron formation.

“[The results] confirm our belief that we have discovered a potentially very significant iron ore asset in a rapidly emerging iron ore province in west Africa. Nkout is represented by an approximately 8km long priority geophysical signature, co-incident with a major hill,” Luis da Silva added.

“A ten hole 4,200m phase one drilling programme is planned to commence imminently, in order to test the highest priority signatures to refine the geological model and progress the project towards a maiden iron resource still during 2010. We look forward to updating shareholders on progress in due course."

The company also noted that previous grab samples from Nkout have returned up to 68% Fe and averaged 55% Fe.

Nkout is located on African Aura’s wholly-owned, 489km2 Djoum licence in southern Cameroon, in a sub-region - consisiting of southern Cameroon, Gabon and the Republic of Congo (Congo-Brazzaville) - which hosts a number of substantial iron deposits. The 2.5Bt (billion tonne) Mbalam deposit, being developed by Sundance Resources (ASX:SDL), is located 150km southeast of Nkout.

African Aura has three principal iron ore projects in Cameroon, Nkout, Ngoa and Akom Hills, and it considers that their combined dimensions represent a potentially significant iron ore asset.

African Aura Mining was formed late last year through a merger between Mano River Resources and African Aura Resources. The merger was completed in October 2009, and the enlarged company has a considerable portfolio of projects focused on iron ore and gold deposits in highly prospective, underexplored countries of sub-Saharan Africa.

In April 2010, African Aura conducted a private placing with certain institutional and other investors to raise approximately £11.3 million (C$17.5 million), issuing 17.39 million new shares at 65p (C$1.01) each. The proceeds are intended to fund work across its project portfolio over the next 14 months, including the New Liberty gold deposit and the Weaju deposit in Liberia, and the Nkout iron ore project in Cameroon.

Specifically, African Aura told investors that it intends to use the proceeds for the completion of a Bankable Feasibility Study (BFS) at New Liberty, with an estimated cost of US$9 million; to deliver a maiden resource statement for Nkout for an estimated cost of US$3.8 million; and to deliver a NI 43-101 resource statement for Weaju which is estimated to cost US$1.1 million.

African Aura operates two divisions: iron ore and gold.

The iron ore division includes its 38.5 percent interest in the Putu iron ore project in Liberia, which is moving through pre-feasibility managed by joint venture partner Severstal Resources, the mining division of Moscow listed OAO Severstal. The division also includes a 100 percent interest in the Nkout iron ore project and surrounding iron targets in Cameroon. The gold division includes the multi million ounce potential New Liberty greenstone gold deposit, which is being advanced through a bankable feasibility study, and the proximal Weaju, Gondoja and Silver Hills projects, all in western Liberia.#
In addition, the company has a 31.8 percent interest in AIM-listed diamond producer Stellar Diamonds Plc (LON: STEL).

http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/19041/african-aura-defines-major-iron-ore-target-at-nkout-cameroon-19041.html

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