Raising of Limit of Ownership by CRM

18 December 2012

African Minerals Limited ("AML" or "the Company")

Raising of Limit of Ownership by CRM

African Minerals is pleased to report that it has agreed to a request from China Railway Materials Commercial Corporation (and its subsidiaries, together "CRM") to raise its restriction on share ownership from 12.5% to 15.0%.

AML has however maintained the limit on CRM's voting shares at 12.5%, with any additional shares purchased by CRM in the market to be voted at shareholder meetings by an independent non-executive director of AML in accordance with the board's voting recommendation.

Chief Executive Officer, Keith Calder, commented on the raising of CRM's ownership limit:

"We welcome this strong support from one of our cornerstone shareholders and partners as we ramp up production to a sustainable level of 20Mtpa in Q2 2013, and we believe this sends a strong signal of the underlying value of the Company to the market."

Contacts:

African Minerals Limited

+44 20 3435 7600

Mike Jones

FTI Consulting

+44 20 7831 3113

Ben Brewerton / Billy Clegg

Deutsche Bank

+44 207 545 8000

Brent Nabbs

African Minerals is developing its Tonkolili iron ore project in Sierra Leone, with a JORC compliant resource of 12.8Bnt. The project, which currently has a 60+ year mine-life, is being developed in a number of staged expansions. The current operations are expected to produce 20 million tonnes of iron ore per annum at full capacity, expected to be achieved in Q2 2013.

The next stage of expansion now contemplates the production of up to 35Mtpa of 64% high grade hematite concentrate and the expansion of the current port facilities at Pepel, expected to enter production in 2016.

The Company has also developed significant port and rail infrastructure to support the operation of the project, via its subsidiary African Rail and Port Services (SL) Limited ("ARPS"), in which the Government of Sierra Leone ("GoSL") has a 10% free carried interest.

The Tonkolili project companies are currently owned 75% by AML, and 25% by Shandong Iron and Steel Group ("SISG"), except for ARPS, which is currently owned 75% by AML and 25% by SISG, with the GoSL having a 10% free carried interest.

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