JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) − Aim- and JSE-listed African Eagle Resources will spin out its Zambian copper assets into a new company, Cobra Copper, as part of its strategy to spin out its noncore legacy projects to focus on the Dutwa nickel project in Tanzania. African Eagle is developing former openpit and underground mines at Mkhushi in a joint venture with CGA Mining and also owns two base metal exploration projects in the Zambian Copperbelt. “Cobra represents a fully integrated copper exploration and development company in one of the great copper producing regions of the world, and we expect it to realise the value of African Eagle Resources’ copper assets,” the company stated. Chris Davies has been mandated to steer the copper division to full independence, African Eagle said, adding that it was advancing its plan to reorganise its board of directors to put in place the skills needed to take Dutwa through to construction and into production. UK-based African Eagle is searching for a CEO and said plans were on track for MD Mark Parker to shift to a new opportunities role by the end of the year. Also, part-time finance director Bevan Metcalf would step aside once a full-time replacement has been appointed with input from the new CEO. Meanwhile, Parker reported “good progress” on the Dutwa definitive feasibility study (DFS), which would be completed by the end of 2012. African Eagle has started mineral processing and metallurgical testwork − key components of the DFS − on bulk samples of each of the ore types. The new testwork would build on the results of past tests, which demonstrated that the Dutwa ore could be treated by simple atmospheric leaching at low-acid consumption, with no requirement to employ costly high-pressure acid leaching technology. The new tests would also help to optimise the process flow-sheet and investigate various ways to cut operating costs. The prefeasibility study phase of the DFS will be completed in late 2011 and Parker said that African Eagle was also making good progress with other elements of the feasibility study. “Our studies of logistics, infrastructure and reagents are well advanced and our contractor has started the baseline surveys for the environmental and social-impact assessment, which will be conducted to full Equator Principles standards.” Dutwa has a resource of 99-million tons at 0.93% nickel, which will be mined from two hilltop deposits. Financial modeling prepared for the feasibility study in March, indicated a net present value for a three-million-ton-a-year project of $870-million at a nickel price of $10/lb.

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