Commencement of drilling at Rukwa

RNS Number : 9462K

Edenville Energy PLC

25 July 2011

 

25th July 2011

EDENVILLE ENERGY PLC ("Edenville" or the "Company")

Commencement of Drilling, Rukwa Coal Project, Tanzania

Edenville Energy plc (AIM:EDL), the coal focused African energy exploration and development company, today announces the commencement of exploration drilling at its Rukwa coal project in South Western Tanzania.

Layne Drilling Tanzania has been contracted to initiate a PQ/HQ size diamond drill core campaign across the Namwele and Mkomolo Deposits of the Rukwa coalfield. Drilling commenced on the 21st July at the Mkomolo Deposit of the Coalfield where geological mapping, supported by pitting and trenching undertaken by Edenville, has defined a strike length of over 7km of the potential coal measures strata. Coal measures are those strata known to host coal seam mineralisation. Drilling will be completed on a grid pattern with north-south line spacing at 500m intervals. All holes are being drilled vertically to intersect the coal measures at successively deeper depths up to a maximum of 200m. Once the Mkomolo area drilling is completed the drill rig will move south on to the Namwele Deposit.

The first diamond drillhole, MK11-01, was completed to a final depth of 43m. The coal measures were intersected from 32 to 38m and included 1.80m of coal which is currently being logged and sampled. The second hole (MK11-02) is now in progress and is at a depth of 21.60m within mudstones that lie directly above the coal zone.

All sample analysis will be completed on whole core samples and shipped out and analysed at the coal specialist laboratory (Inspectorate Labs.) in Middleburg, South Africa. Assayed results are expected to be announced during the second half of 2011. Dr. R. Lowman, of the Wardell-Armstong Coal Division is currently on site initiating/supervising the start up and QA/QC procedures for this first phase diamond drilling programme.

The Rukwa Coalfield comprises the Namwele, Mkomolo and Muze Deposits where coal is visible on surface.  Limited small-scale open cast mining has previously been undertaken at Namwele with production reported at 30,000 tonnes of coal over a 3 year period. This material was trucked to the Mbeya Cement Company, some 250km to the southeast of the Rukwa Coalfields. The geology of the Namwele-Mkomolo Deposits comprises a series of coal hosting Karroo aged sedimentary blocks, which are shallow dipping with a strike length totaling some 9km (trending in a northwest direction) and an average 1.5km in width.

Commenting today Simon Rollason, Chairman of Edenville, said; "The diamond drill programme for Rukwa is now underway with priority areas defined from our surface exploration programmes and information obtained from previous coal production. The targets are all near surface and we intend to complete a campaign of a series of shallow drill holes that will allow Edenville to start defining the resource size and quality of the in-situ coal. Our strategy at Edenville is to build low Capex producing energy projects for domestic African supply. Given Rukwa's previous production history and results from surface programme, I look forward to seeing first assayed results from drilling later in the year so we can quickly access the development options for the asset. We intend to update shareholders of the progress periodically as laboratory analysis of the drill core is returned."

Photographs of the drilling are being placed on the company website

Contact:

Edenville Energy plc
Simon Rollason - Chairman Rakesh Patel - Finance Director www.edenville-energy.com	[phone]
ZAI Corporate Finance Ltd
Ray Zimmerman/ Marc Cramsie	[phone]
Threadneedle Communications
Laurence Read/Richard Gotla	[phone]

 

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