RNS Number:9978Q
AfriOre Limited
08 September 2005



                  AFRIORE DELINEATES HIGH GRADE, WIDE ZONES OF

        PGM MINERALIZATION IN THE INITIAL COMPILATION OF DRILL HOLE DATA

                   AT AKANANI PLATINUM PROJECT, SOUTH AFRICA



For Immediate Release: Thursday, September 8, 2005



Road Town, Tortola, British Virgin Islands (September 8, 2005) - AfriOre Limited
(TSX/AIM: AFO) ("AfriOre") explorer and developer of gold and platinum projects,
is pleased to announce positive results of its preliminary compilation from the
initial 12 drill holes drilled on its Akanani Platinum Project in South Africa.



The drilling has yielded very encouraging results, as all drill holes have
intersected well developed platinum group metal ("PGM") and associated nickel
and copper mineralization within the Platreef unit over a drilled strike length
of 6,500 metres.  All 12 holes have wide mineralized intersections within a
broad upper zone generally within 30 metres of the hanging wall contact of the
Platreef unit. As recorded in the attached table, these intersections have an
average width of 27.92 metres (uncorrected for the dip of approximately 45
degrees) with an average grade of 4.44g/t 4E (platinum + palladium + rhodium +
gold). The selected higher grade intercepts within the broad upper zone have an
average uncorrected width of 6.72 metres at an average grade of 6.47g/t 4E.



In addition, nine of the holes have mineralized intersections lower in the
Platreef unit.  Selected higher grade intercepts from these lower zones, for
which the detailed correlation is to be established during the infill drilling
program.



Click on the following link to download the PDF document which includes results
tables and pictures relating to this announcement.

http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/9978q_-2005-9-8.pdf



All of the drill holes were collared vertically and eleven of the twelve drill
holes reported above are situated within 200 metres of the eastern boundary of
the Akanani property. Drill hole ZF9, the first drill hole to confirm the
down-dip extension of mineralization within the project area, was sited
approximately 500 metres west of drill hole ZF1 in the southern part of the
property. Subsequent to the drilling of ZF9, this westerly extension of the
Platreef has been further confirmed by Platreef intersections in two drill holes
that are currently being drilled, ZF10, sited 500 metres west of ZF6, and ZF11,
sited approximately 500 metres west of drill hole ZF2.



The results of all twelve of the drill holes have been reported previously in
various AfriOre press releases between November 18, 2004 and August 18, 2005,
along with the details of the personnel employed as well as drilling core
logging, sampling, assay procedures and quality controls. Tables summarizing the
higher grade intersections for all of these drill holes are appended. These
results have been internally audited as part of the data base compilation.  The
drilling results compiled here include all nine drill holes in the first phase,
13,000 metre drilling program which was carried out between November 2004 and
July 2005. Two of the drill holes form part of the current, second phase (31,000
metre, 17 drill hole) program which is continuing with five rigs currently
drilling on the project. The remaining drill hole in this compilation, MO1, was
drilled by a subsidiary of Anglo American Platinum Corporation ("Anglo Platinum
") in 1980 and only summary results are available. The drill hole collars are
spaced at intervals of between approximately 360 and 810 metres, averaging some
520 metres apart.



The PGM mineralization drilled on the Akanani project area is accompanied by
significant nickel and copper mineralization, and the average base metal grades
for the upper mineralized zones and the included higher grade zones listed in
Table 1 are 0.22% Ni and 0.13% Cu, and 0.30% Ni and 0.17% Cu respectively. These
base metals prove to be a valuable revenue source at the neighbouring
Potgietersrust Platinum ("PPL") mine of Anglo Platinum, which has similar base
metal mineralization.



AfriOre's initial prospecting area at Akanani comprises the eastern part of the
property including the area from the eastern property boundary, adjacent to the
Anglo Platinum PPL mining licence area, to the projected depth of the Platreef
at 2000 metres below surface in the west. The drilling results indicate that the
upper contact of the Platreef unit is projected to be developed at a depth of
approximately 750 metres below surface on the eastern boundary, extending to a
maximum drilled depth of approximately 1430 metres below surface in the west. It
is estimated that some 650 hectares (1,600 acres) within the project area are
potentially underlain by Platreef at depths of less than 2,000 metres below
surface. This is similar to the range of current mining and exploration depths
elsewhere in the Bushveld Complex.



Comments Mike van Aswegen, AfriOre's President and CEO, "We are very encouraged
by the results of the compilation of our initial drilling results. All 12 drill
holes have intersected PGM mineralization and we have exceeded our initial
exploration objective of delineating zones of Platreef mineralization of at
least 5 metres at grades in excess of 4g/t 4E.  Preliminary indications support
the model of very wide mineralized zones, persistent over a strike length of
6,500 metres, with higher grade zones in excess of 6g/t 4E in many drill holes.
These grades compare favourably with those currently being mined on existing
underground PGM mines in South Africa, at similar depths, where the mining of
the less than 2 metre wide UG2 Reef and Merensky Reef do not enjoy the lower
costs of wide reef mining that may be applicable at Akanani. In addition, there
are wide zones of PGM mineralization present in the lower part of the Platreef
unit, which may be potential additional resources and are being further
investigated in the ongoing drilling to establish the correlation of individual
mineralized zones. We believe that these results indicate that further drilling
has the potential to delineate a large tonnage, bulk mineable PGM resource at
Akanani."



Exploration at Akanani is continuing with the second phase, 17 hole, drilling
program with the aim of establishing a mineral resource by the middle of 2006.
Drilling will continue to focus on the second and third tiers of drilling,
particularly in the areas of better developed, high grade, wide zones of
mineralization, to confirm the lateral extent of the mineralization.
Subsequently, in-fill drilling will be undertaken between existing drill holes
and the remaining 2,500 metres of the total 9,000 metres of strike, as yet
undrilled, will be investigated. Studies are continuing to more accurately
correlate the mineralized zones. Furthermore, based on these very positive
results, AfriOre has commissioned preliminary conceptual scoping studies on the
metallurgical properties of the mineralization and on possible mining methods
that may be applied to future mining operations.



AfriOre's President and CEO, Mike van Aswegen, is the qualified person
overseeing the exploration program.



About the Platreef



The Platreef unit is a 150 to 300 metre wide feldspathic pyroxenite unit and
dips regionally at 35degrees to 45degrees towards the west.   Within the Akanani
project area, the Platreef is overlain by gabbros and norites of the Main Zone
and is underlain by floor rocks of Archaean age granites and metasedimentary
rocks of the Proterozoic Transvaal Supergroup.  It has the most widespread PGM
mineralization in the Northern Limb of the Bushveld Complex and has a similar
stratigraphic position to the Critical Zone, which hosts the PGM bearing
Merensky and UG2 reefs, in the Eastern and Western limbs of the Bushveld
Complex. Locally, the pyroxenites in the central sector of the Northern Limb, in
which the Akanani project occurs, contain calc-silicates lenses and suggest
reaction of the pyroxenite melt with footwall dolomites of the underlying
Transvaal Supergroup strata in the area. This reaction with footwall rocks is
considered to have influenced the development of the higher PGM and base metal
grades, which are associated with this central sector of the Platreef.   The
PGM, gold, nickel and copper grades at Akanani and throughout the central sector
are considerably higher than most of those reported for other properties in the
northern and southern sectors of the Platreef.



The Platreef unit contains multiple, wide zones of PGM, nickel and copper
mineralization which are currently being successfully mined at Anglo Platinum's
4.5 million tonne per annum PPL open pit mining operations, immediately up-dip
from the Akanani project area.



About the Akanani Project



In November 2004, AfriOre through a subsidiary company, concluded an agreement
with Akanani Mining (Pty) Ltd ("Akanani Mining") in which AfriOre has the right
to acquire  up to a 74% interest in the Akanani project, subject to the terms of
the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act ("MPRDA") (refer to AfriOre
press release dated November 11 2004). Akanani Mining holds a valid prospecting
licence which grants it a 100% interest on the two farms comprising the 4095
hectare (10,119 acre) Akanani project area, namely Zwartfontein 814LR and
Moordkopje 813LR. Akanani Mining has applied to the Department of Minerals and
Energy in South Africa for a conversion of its old order rights to new order
rights, as is required in terms of the provisions of the MPRDA. The Akanani
project area has a common boundary with Anglo Platinum's Potgietersrust Platinum
Limited mining property and is immediately west and down-dip of the northern of
the two operating open pits. On concluding the agreement with Akanani Mining in
November 2004, AfriOre immediately commenced exploration, and based on the
positive results received, steadily increased the number of drill rigs operating
on the project to six.



For further information, please contact:


AfriOre Limited                                  Charles Stanley & Co
Stuart Comline                                   Dugald Carlean
T: +27 83 654 5449                               T: +44(0) 20 7953 2485
Alan Friedman                                    Parkgreen Communications
T: +1 416 361 9636                               Justine Howarth / Ana Ribeiro
E: friedman@taucapital.com                       T: +44 (0) 20 7493 3713
www.afriore.com



About AfriOre



AfriOre is engaged in the acquisition, exploration and development of gold and
platinum exploration properties in Africa. It has gold exploration properties in
South Africa, Mali, Namibia and Kenya and the Akanani platinum group metals
properties in South Africa.



AfriOre has 40,099,377 common shares outstanding (47,270,203 shares fully
diluted) and cash of approximately C$9.5 million.



AfriOre is listed in Standard & Poor's Corporation Records and furnishes
information to the SEC pursuant to Rule 12g 3-2(b) under the Securities Exchange
Act of 1934.






                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END

DRLUUUGPBUPAURR

Grafico Azioni Afriore (LSE:AFO)
Storico
Da Mag 2024 a Giu 2024 Clicca qui per i Grafici di Afriore
Grafico Azioni Afriore (LSE:AFO)
Storico
Da Giu 2023 a Giu 2024 Clicca qui per i Grafici di Afriore