Charlotte Mathews
2 October 2008
Johannesburg — AIM- and AltX-listed African Eagle Resources was prioritising the exploration of its promising nickel laterite discovery at Dutwa in Tanzania, MD Mark Parker said yesterday.
Latest exploration results suggested Dutwa could become the largest nickel mine in Africa.
He told a media presentation on the company that African Eagle's strategy was to make discoveries and earn revenue from them, either by bringing them into production itself or by bringing in partners with mining and engineering skills.
African Eagle's most developed project, the Mkushi copper property in Zambia, is partnered with Australian group CGA Mining. The company is, however, seeking partners for its Ndola copper, Eagle Eye iron oxide/copper/gold, Miyabi gold and various African uranium projects.
Parker said African Eagle would only look for partners in Dutwa once it had completed metallurgical testing and confirmed a resource on the property early next year.
But on the drilling results published so far, the company had been receiving a number of phone calls from interested parties, both major miners and investment bankers.
African Eagle started drilling Dutwa for nickel only three months ago and has now drilled 150 holes. Results from the first 50 holes show grades of up to 4% nickel close to surface, which is exceptionally high, as well as nuggets of cobalt. Some of the drill holes showed nickel and cobalt values equivalent to an ounce of gold close to the surface, deputy chairman Euan Worthington said.
Initial estimates suggested that there were about 30000 tons of nickel in the deposit and substantial cobalt, which was difficult to estimate because it was "nuggety", he said.
Mining would be relatively low-cost and similar to quarrying, as the deposits are shallow with no overburden. Nickel was trading down to $16100/ton on the London Metal Exchange yesterday, from $26 350/ton at the end of last year, but Parker said the project did not rely on high prices.
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