21st Jun 2007 07:00
Kefi Minerals plc21 June 2007 AIM: KEFI 21 June 2007 KEFI Minerals Plc ("KEFI Minerals" or the "Company") DRILLING COMMENCES AT DERININ TEPE PROSPECT KEFI Minerals is pleased to advise that the Company's first drilling program hascommenced earlier than planned at the Derinin Tepe prospect. Trenching atDerinin Tepe has exposed very extensive, shallow mine workings from antiquity.The extent of these workings indicates strong gold mineralisation, enablingdiamond drilling to commence earlier than planned. Initial exploration work had revealed historic workings and encouraging rockchip sample results in the Derinin Tepe area, leading to a total of 30 shorttrenches being excavated across three parallel quartz veins. All trenchesencountered evidence of ancient workings, which have been mostly backfilled withmine waste. It is considered likely that mining of these quartz veins wasundertaken approximately 2,000 years ago by the Romans. Natural processes havesince blended these workings back into the landscape, thus masking the extent ofancient mining. The depth of mining is uncertain but unlikely to be greater than30m given the limitations of ancient technology. The trenching results for the three quartz veins are as follows: • Western vein - encountered workings for 200m along strike, workings continue to the north; • Central vein - encountered workings for 200m along strike, workings continue to the south; and • Eastern vein - encountered workings for 100m along strike, workings continue in both directions. These northwest-southeast striking quartz veins are near vertical and up to 8min width, typically 2m to 4m wide. The current diamond drilling program isplanned to comprise 600m in eight drill holes. These holes are to be drilled atdeclinations of around -60 degrees to the northeast and are planned to interceptthe quartz veins at approximately 50m vertically from the surface. KEFI Minerals' Managing Director, Jeff Rayner, commented: "Trenching hasrevealed that ancient miners found the quartz veins at Derinin Tepe veryworthwhile to mine even with primitive techniques. This revelation has enabledus to bring forward drilling of this exciting prospect. Our drilling program isdesigned to quickly test the strength of gold mineralisation beneath theseworkings and also outcropping quartz veins along strike. "Our work has continued to confirm that Derinin Tepe is prospective for low-sulphidation epithermal gold deposits." The Derinin Tepe Exploration Licence was acquired in early 2007 and is locatedin the highly prospective Balekisir Province in Western Anatolia, Turkey. -Ends- EnquiriesKEFI Minerals WH Ireland Bishopsgate CommunicationsJeffrey Rayner Laurie Beevers Maxine Barnes Katy Mitchell Nick Rome+905 36963 0111 +44 161 832 2174 +44 20 7562 3350www.kefi-minerals.com References in this announcement to exploration results and potential have beenapproved for release by Mr Jeff Rayner, B.Sc. (Honours). Mr Rayner is ageologist and has more than 20 years' relevant experience in the field ofactivity concerned. He is a member of The Australian Institute of Mining andMetallurgy (AUSIMM) and has consented to the inclusion of the material in theform and context in which it appears. Notes to Editors: KEFI Minerals was formed on 24 October 2006 for the purposes of holding EMEDMining's exploration interests in Turkey and Bulgaria with a view to creatingshareholder value through the discovery and exploitation of gold and copperdeposits. In November 2006, KEFI Minerals completed the acquisition of EMED Mining'sTurkish and Bulgarian exploration interests through the acquisition of EMEDMining's subsidiary Mediterranean Minerals (Bulgaria) EOOD. In addition, KEFIMinerals acquired from EMED Mining a database of mining information relating toTurkey. KEFI Minerals commenced trading on AIM on 18 December 2006, following thesuccessful placing of 46,666,667 shares at 3p to raise £1.4 million. A further£0.35 million was raised in a placement at 3p in February 2007. The total of100,583,334 shares are currently on issue. In Turkey, KEFI Minerals has six exploration projects: 1. At Artvin in northeastern Turkey, areas of extensive hydrothermal alteration have been recognised in the project area, and there is evidence of historical workings indicating potential for economic mineralisation. 2. At Gumushane in eastern Turkey, areas of extensive hydrothermal alteration have been recognised in the project area, as well as coincident areas of interest identified through interpretation of Aster data. 3. At Derinin Tepe in the Western Anatolia Region, epithermal quartz veins have been identified with gold and silver mineralisation. 4. At Karalar, in Central Anatolia, highly anomalous gold in stream sediments have been identified in an area of historic base metal mines. 5. Muratdag, in Western Anatolia, is prospective for Carlin-style epithermal gold mineralisation. 6. Meyvali, in Western Anatolia, is prospective for epithermal and skarn related mineralisation. KEFI Minerals also has an extensive exploration database which containsinformation about approximately 100 further prospective sites in Turkey. Thisdatabase provides the Company with a competitive advantage to identifyprospective areas for project generation in Turkey. Monitoring of theexploration licence status of geologically prospective areas will be carried outon an ongoing basis so that KEFI Minerals can acquire further explorationopportunities as soon as they become available. EMED Mining has agreed to provide technical and administrative systems andpersonnel to KEFI Minerals on a cost-recovery basis, thus enabling KEFI Mineralsto reduce overheads and spend more on exploring Turkey and Bulgaria. KEFI Minerals' Board of Directors is comprised of Mr. Harry Anagnostaras-Adams(Chairman), Mr. Jeffrey Rayner (Managing Director), Professor Ian Plimer (DeputyChairman) and John Leach (Finance Director). Further information on KEFI Minerals is available at www.kefi-minerals.com andthe Company's AIM code is "KEFI". This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
Kefi Gold & Copper