Kibo Mining plc (“Kibo” or the “Company”) (AIM: KIBO, AltX: KBO) the mineral exploration and development company focused on gold and nickel projects in Tanzania, is pleased to provide an operations update. The Company has more than doubled its licence area in Tanzania to over 18,000 square kilometres in the last six months gaining a strategic position in both the Lake Victoria Goldfields and the emerging gold districts of eastern Tanzania. This has necessitated a major re-organisation of its operations in Tanzania to meet the demands of exploring and managing a large geographically dispersed licence portfolio effectively. This re-organisation is now complete and field exploration programmes have recommenced.

Summary Highlights
  • the Board has approved a £5.3M exploration programme to evaluate the Lake Victoria, Haneti and Morogoro projects;
  • Stage 1, with a budget of £1.3M, is now being implemented. Gold and nickel are the primary targets;
  • the Company has completed the integration of its exploration office and staff with Mzuri Exploration Services (“MXS”). This will increase its capacity to implement fully supported contemporaneous multi-project field programmes;
  • the Company has received the final results from metallurgical testing at the Golden Horseshoe Reef deposit (the “GHR”) which indicate high gold recoveries; and
  • negotiations are underway with Tanzanian Royalty Exploration Corporation Limited (“TREC”) and a financial institution to allow the Company to immediately exercise its option over the Itetemia and Luhala projects and to work on securing debt and equity financing to advance mine development at the GHR.

The Company is progressing on two fronts:

(a) exploration to evaluate its large ground holding and focus on priority areas to quickly define target areas for Stage 2 drilling; and

(b) evaluation of whether it can bring forward the immediate exercise of its option over the Itetemia and Luhala projects and proceed with developing a mine on the the GHR deposit which has a JORC-compliant mineral resource of 422,000 oz. of gold.

The exploration is underway as are negotiations of the terms of its agreement with TREC for immediate exercise of its option on Itetemia and Luhala and with a financial institution to secure debt financing for the development of the GHR.

Noel O’Keeffe, CEO of Kibo commented:

“The Board is pleased to provide this operational update following a period of corporate and operational re-structuring during 2011 to meet the demands of a significantly expanded exploration property foot print in Tanzania.

We are excited by the exploration opportunities offered by our expanded licence portfolio both in the gold prolific Lake Victoria Goldfield and the newly emerging areas in eastern Tanzania. Now that field programmes have re-commenced, we look forward to updating the Shareholders on a regular basis as exploration results emerge.

We will also update Shareholders on the results of our on-going negotiation with TREC and a financial institution which will allow the Board to make a definitive decision on its plans for Itetemia and Luhala”.

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