African Eagle's new JORC resource for Dutwa exceeds expectations

African Eagle Resources (LON:AFE) has reported a major resource upgrade at the Dutwa nickel project in Tanzania, with a new JORC Inferred Resource at the western Ngasamo deposit and an updated JORC inferred resource at the main Wamangola deposit. The company said that the latest increase to its JORC resource has exceeded its own expectations.

Dutwa now has a total resource tonnage of 92.1 million tonnes (Mt) - Ngasamo 35.3Mt & Wamangola 56.8Mt - grading 0.92% nickel equivalent (0.88% nickel and 0.032% cobalt), for a total contained resource of 845,000 tonnes of nickel equivalent consisting of 806,000t nickel & 30,000 cobalt.

“The new resource estimate exceeds our expectations, tripling the tonnage and more than doubling the contained nickel equivalent from 345,000 to 845,000 tonnes. This is a significant step forward in our feasibility work at Dutwa,” African Eagle MD Mark Parker commented. "The results also show that the Ngasamo deposit shares Dutwa's high silica, low iron, low magnesium chemistry, which is the key to the low acid consumption seen in the metallurgical testing.”

"Independent consultants Snowden are now improving the Wamangola deposit model to upgrade the resources from JORC inferred to indicated category, using the data from our extensive drilling programmes over the past 12 months," Parker said.

African Eagle has been making rapid progress at Dutwa, with the company completing its latest drilling program earlier this month. On 10 June, a 98 hole infill and definition drilling program was completed at the main Wamangola deposit.

Resource modelling is now underway, which is intended to upgrade a ‘significant proportion’ of its JORC resource into the Indicated category.

“The programme was designed by Snowden, our deposit modelling contractor, to provide geostatistical data to allow the resource to be recalculated to JORC Indicated category,” Parker had said. “All the drill results have been sent to Snowden and resource modelling is well under way.”

The latest drilling campaign consisted of 98 holes - 71 infill Reverse Circulation (RC) drill holes and 27 definition holes - from the main Wamangola deposit. African Eagle has now completed 404 holes in total resource drilling totaling 24,297 metres.

From the results, the key mineralised intersections include 54m at 1.5% nickel including a 6m section grading 2.8% nickel, 45m at 1.3% nickel, 57m at 1% nickel, 42m at 1.3% nickel. The company noted that the latest programme was designed to provide data on the uniformity and variability of the deposit, to allow Snowden to recalculate the resource estimate and upgrade a significant proportion of it to JORC Indicated category.

In May, African Eagle reported exceptional results from column leach tests for the Dutwa ore. The company said the result opens a wider range of leach options, by either heap leaching or tank leaching at normal atmospheric pressure. “We are delighted with the results of our phase 2 column and tank leach tests, which show that Dutwa ore could be processed by either heap leaching or tank leaching at normal atmospheric pressure, without recourse to the high cost and hi-tech complications of high pressure acid leach (HPAL)”, MD Parker had commented.

“The leaching reaction proceeds very quickly, especially for the first two-thirds of the contained nickel, and the acid consumption is much lower that for comparable deposits elsewhere. This opens a wider range of leach options and, if heap leaching is used, implies that working capital should not be tied-up for a long period while the heap reaches full productivity."

According to African Eagle the leach tests, using 1m columns, performed exceptionally well achieving good nickel and cobalt recovery whilst maintaining low acid consumption. The results showed nickel extraction of 73-82% within 30 days and 86-92% after 100 days, while cobalt extraction reached up to 60% within 30 days and 80-85% after 100 days. Tank leach tests gave 80-85% nickel extraction within 8 hours.

Since discovering major oxide nickel deposits at Dutwa, 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, 60 kilometres south of Dutwa.

The company also holds a 49 percent 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.