Significant JORC-compliant Resource Announcement Anticipated in Zimbabwean Midland Gold Fields

African Consolidated Resources plc / Ticker: AFCR / Index: AIM / Sector: Mining
11 July 2012
African Consolidated Resources plc ('ACR' or the 'Company')

Significant JORC-compliant Resource Announcement Anticipated
in Zimbabwean Midland Gold Fields

ACR, the AIM listed southern African focussed resource development company, announces that initial results from work relating to an impending JORC-compliant upgrade on the Pickstone-Peerless Gold Project have demonstrated the likelihood of a significantly higher resource announcement than previously anticipated.  The results are likely to offer better-than-expected improvements on both past Resource Statements and on earlier predictions with respect to total ounce-quantum, to JORC category and to average grade.  The Board expects that this will provide the Company with a considerable upgrade to its current global JORC-compliant Resource of 1.54 million ounces ('oz') of gold ('Au').

This notification is being made in accordance with AIM Rule 11, which requires price sensitive information to be notified without delay.  A resource update, estimated and tabulated in accordance with the JORC standard, will be notified as soon as is practicable but such announcement is expected to be within a period of no more than 2 months.

Additional Background

Pickstone-Peerless Project

• This project consists of two distinct ore bodies, the "Pickstone" and the "Peerless".  Both ore-bodies are expected to contribute to the greater than expected increase in resource. 

Pickstone

• Current Pickstone body sits atop a historically producing ore body closed by Rio Tinto in the early 1970s due to political and economic circumstances of the time.  From ACR work post AIM IPO in 2006, the ore-body currently has a declared JORC-compliant Resource of 240,000oz Au calculated on ore from surface to a depth of 150m. 

• Additional work including the complete digitisation of Rio Tinto's old underground mining and sampling, drilling and assay records dating to the 1960s and 1970s has provided a detailed insight to the extent and type of mineralisation present.  The findings have surpassed existing knowledge and expectations.  

• This work is expected to enable Resource calculation to 750m from surface as well as provide a measurable enhancement of certainty on resource grade and extent.  The ore body is open-ended at depth below 750m. 

Peerless

• The currently declared JORC-compliant Resource on the Peerless trend is 210,000oz Au which comprises ore from surface to varying depths down to 120m. 

• Previously announced drilling on the Peerless ore-body, including Hole PEDD 5, which averaged 4.7g/t Au over 200m depth, were conducted within the plane of the vein. These have not yet been included in resource calculations but provide good confidence in vertical continuity of lodes and average grade as well as offering encouraging metallurgical test results.  

• Historical Rio Tinto holes of 350m depth as well as underground development sampling / assaying records are now being combined with the recent drilling to improve both JORC-category and quantum upgrades on the Peerless Resource, as well as a possible average grade improvements. 

Gadzema Gold Project

• Gadzema is considered a bulk-mining opportunity with its lower-grade tenor offset by attractive bulk economics (the sub-vertical ore body is frequently in excess of 400m widths and has a potential strike length of more than 5km - almost entirely under ACR tenure).   

• The stated Gadzema Resource currently stands at over 1 million oz @ 1.2g/t Au to a depth of 110m with a drilled-out strike portion of 1.8km to date.  It remains open in width, open in depth and open in strike extension. 

• A modest Resource upgrade at Gadzema is anticipated from a previously un-quantified, but relatively small extension of past work programmes. 

Roy Tucker, Executive Chairman of ACR, said   "The scope and scale of our Zimbabwean Midlands gold projects continues to impress and matches our internal optimism.  Notably, the Pickstone-Peerless Project and the Gadzema Project (within 15 miles of each other) are now each significant gold resources in their own right.  Pickstone-Peerless, as a previously producing asset, can most likely be brought back into substantial commercial production relatively quickly. Upon completion of the imminent JORC-Resource upgrade, we will evaluate an optimal route towards production and envisage commissioning a full bankable feasibility study.  In the nearer term we have, subject to funding, the ability to commence generation of revenues from open-pit mining of the oxide and transitional ores at the Peerless and, possibly in parallel, from the high-grade Pickstone sulphide dump.  Such operations would offer ACR a rapid and low-capex means of generating cashflow for future project development.

"With an existing global resource inventory of over 1.5 million ounces, soon to be followed by the expected upgrade, ACR continues to add value across its portfolio of assets.  The Company intends to fast-track development in order to maximise the value at these promising gold properties, thereby establishing itself as a commercial gold producer and developer."

This announcement has been reviewed by Mike Kellow BSc, a member of the Australian Institute of Geologists and Technical Director of ACR.  Mr Kellow meets the definition of a "qualified person" as defined in the AIM Note for Mining, Oil and Gas Companies.

**ENDS**

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