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AEA
AEA
AEA - African Eagle Appoints Project Manager (Metallurgy) For The Dutwa Nickel
Feasibility Study, Tanzania
African Eagle Resources plc
(Incorporated in England and Wales, registered number 3912362)
AIM share code: AFE AIM ISIN: GB0003394813
JSE share code: AEA JSE ISIN: GB0003394813
AFRICAN EAGLE APPOINTS PROJECT MANAGER (METALLURGY)
FOR THE DUTWA NICKEL FEASIBILITY STUDY, TANZANIA
Top hydro-metallurgist joins Dutwa team
Dr Chad Czerny to lead Dutwa feasibility study
World authority on nickel laterite processing
More than 20 years technical management and research and development experience
Key member of project teams which developed treatment processes for some of the
world`s best known nickel laterites
Appointment advances Company`s transition from explorer to producer
African Eagle today announced the appointment of Dr Chad Czerny as Project
Manager (Metallurgy) for the Dutwa Oxide Nickel Project in Tanzania.
Managing Director Mark Parker comments, "We are delighted that Dr Czerny is
joining our Dutwa development team. Dr Czerny is one of the world`s top research
and development hydro-metallurgists in the nickel laterite field and has worked
on many of the best known deposits of this type. The appointment is another key
step in African Eagle`s transition from explorer to nickel producer. For the
first time, it brings mineral processing expertise to the Company, to manage and
implement the metallurgical testwork and engineering design programmes which
will be critical to the success of the Dutwa project."
Dr Czerny yesterday said "I`m very pleased to be joining African Eagle and the
Dutwa project team, as I believe Dutwa is one of the most exciting nickel
projects being developed today, thanks to its unique ore mineralogy, which
promises benefits of low costs of both plant construction and ore processing
operation. This will be a busy but exciting period, for me personally and for
African Eagle, as the Dutwa feasibility study gains momentum".
Dr. Czerny is an extractive metallurgist with more than 20 years technical and
management experience in metallurgical R&D testwork and process development
programmes for scoping and bankable feasibility studies.
In the last 15 years, Dr Czerny has specialised in the metallurgy of nickel
laterites, working in BHP Billiton`s global technology group from 2006 to 2009,
and at SGS Lakefield Oretest`s laboratory and hydrometallurgy pilot plant in
Perth (Western Australia) from 1997 to 2006. He has commissioned and operated
pilot plants for pressure acid leaching, heap and tank leaching, and the
production of Ni/Co intermediates, including an integrated atmospheric leach,
resin-in-pulp and elution pilot plant for treating nickel laterite ores at BHP
Billiton`s Newcastle Technology Centre (New South Wales).
Dr Czerny has worked on the development of treatment processes for ores from
many of the world`s best known nickel laterites, including Ravensthorpe, Niquel
do Vermelho, Cawse, Bulong, Weda Bay, San Felipe, Marlborough, Koniambo,
Soroako, Mt. Margaret and Murrin Murrin.
Technical terms
A glossary of technical terms used by African Eagle in this announcement and
other published material may be found at www.africaneagle.co.uk/p/glossary.asp
For further information:
Mark Parker
Managing Director
African Eagle
+44 20 7248 6059
+44 77 5640 6899
Nicola Marrin
Seymour Pierce Limited, London
Nominated Adviser
+ 44 20 7107 8000
Charmane Russell
Russell & Associates, Johannesburg
+ 27 11 8803924
+27 82 8928052
Ed Portman / Leesa Peters
Conduit PR, London
+44 20 7429 6607
+44 77 3336 3501
About African Eagle
Since discovering major oxide nickel deposits at Dutwa in Tanzania, African
Eagle is in transition from a diversified explorer into a nickel mining company.
The Company completed a positive scoping study on the Dutwa deposit in July 2009
and is now working towards a full feasibility study.
African Eagle is evaluating a second promising oxide nickel deposit at Zanzui in
Tanzania, 60km south of Dutwa.
The Company also holds a 49% interest in the Mkushi Copper Mines joint venture
in Zambia, for which a draft feasibility study was completed in Q4 2008. In
addition, it holds a half million ounce gold resource at the Miyabi project in
Tanzania, and a portfolio of gold and base metal exploration assets, including
two projects in the Zambian Copperbelt.
The Company is seeking partners or buyers for its "non-core" copper, gold and
uranium projects.
More information may be found on the Company`s website, www.africaneagle.co.uk
African Eagle`s oxide nickel projects
The Dutwa oxide nickel project, discovered in mid-2008, consists of two deposits
within blankets of laterite or weathered rock on the tops of low ridges. African
Eagle believes that the deposits together contain around 500,000 tonnes of
nickel with by-product cobalt. Because the deposits lie at surface, mining costs
will be very low.
The deposits lie 100km east of the railhead at Mwanza and close to the main
Mwanza-Nairobi trunk road, a major power line and the shore of Lake Victoria.
The Company holds a 90% interest in the main Dutwa deposit, with option to
acquire 100%, and is earning up to 75% of a second nickel deposit at Ngasamo,
6km to the west.
Since discovering the deposits in June 2008, African Eagle has explored the
project very quickly and cost-effectively, completing an interim JORC-compliant
resource estimate based on the drilling completed to September 2008 and
laboratory metallurgical and mineralogical tests which showed that the deposit
can be processed efficiently by sulphuric acid leaching.
In July 2009, the Company announced the results of a "proof of concept" scoping
study by GRD Minproc, which indicated that the project would be profitable if it
were in production today. At current nickel prices (
$10/lb), earnings over the
life of mine would be of the order of $3 billion on an EBIT basis, giving an
internal rate of return around 33%, after tax. African Eagle has now begun work
towards a definitive feasibility study.
The economic viability of any nickel laterite deposit depends on its metallurgy,
its resource geology and its location. Metallurgical tests have shown that the
Dutwa ore is unusually, perhaps uniquely, amenable to acid leaching, with very
low acid consumption and a very fast leach reaction compared to other nickel
laterites around the world. These characteristics should allow the ore to be
processed at atmospheric pressure using straightforward heap or tank leaching.
In addition to the Dutwa deposits, African Eagle holds the Zanzui nickel
project, which is only 60km from Dutwa and offers potential economies of scale.
Zanzui is possibly twice as large as Dutwa and preliminary metallurgical tests
suggest that it shares the same fast, low-acid leaching characteristics. The
Company is aware of at least two other, similar deposits in Tanzania.
9 March 2010
Sponsor
Nedbank Capital
Date: 09/03/2010 09:00:01 Produced by the JSE SENS Department.
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