Significant increase in Trojan Nickel Resource

4 February 2013

Mwana Africa PLC

("Mwana", the "Group" or the "Company")

Significant increase in Trojan Nickel Resource

Mwana Africa is pleased to announce a 152% increase in the JORC compliant Nickel resource at Bindura Nickel Corporation's ("BNC") Trojan Nickel mine in Zimbabwe.

Highlights

·; The total Nickel resource for the Trojan Nickel Mine is now 114,952t Nickel (based on a 0.45% Ni cut off), compared to 45,600t previously.

·; The overall resource grade has increased from 1.29% to 1.51%.

·; Down dip extension of high grade massive sulphide zone within the disseminated sulphide main ore body has been confirmed.

·; Drilling confirms that the orebody remains open at depth.

The additional JORC resource below 37 level is based on 27 diamond drill holes with a total of 9,403m drilled as part of the first phase of an underground drilling program aimed at proving the down dip extension of the Trojan resource below the lowest current mining level (37 level). Drilling to date extends the known orebody by approximately 300m down dip and mineralisation remains open at depth. The disseminated portion of the main ore bodies remains open along strike to the East. This eastern zone will be the subject of further drilling planned to be carried out during 2013.

Based on the drilling results and geological interpretation, a 3-D electronic block model of the different parts of the ore body was created and the grades of each block were estimated using Ordinary Kriging. Block volumes were converted to tonnes using the estimated relative density of each block. The classification of the combined mineral resources is based on the block variance and data density.

The additional JORC resource below 37 level, as declared by BNC's qualified person, has been audited and signed off by SRK Consulting South Africa (Table 1).

Table 1 shows the additional resource below 37 level. Table 2 shows the combined total JORC resource at Trojan, combining the previous resource above 37 level and the additional resource below 37 level.

Table 1: Trojan Nickel Resource below 37 Level

* Weighted Average

Table 2 Trojan Total Nickel Resource

Kalaa Mpinga, Chief Executive Officer of Mwana, commented:

"Bindura Nickel Corporation has successfully and significantly increased the size of the resource at Trojan Nickel Mine. The results clearly demonstrate the longevity of the deposit. The validation of the continuance of the massives has important strategic benefits in terms of mine planning and will contribute to an improving head grade at Trojan. These results follow the impressive progress made underground and on the surface plant rehabilitation programme and confirms our belief in the restart of operations at Trojan and bodes well for the future of BNC."

Qualified Person

Gayle Hanssen, Consultant Geologist B.Sc (Hons) Natal, Pr. Sci. Nat, is a 'Qualified Person' as defined in the AIM Rules. The exploration and resource information contained in this press release pertaining to Trojan have been reviewed and verified by Ms. Hanssen.

For further information please visit www.mwanaafrica.com or contact:

Mwana Africa PLC Tel: +44 (0)20 7654 5580

Donald McAlister / Lorenz Werndle

Nominated Adviser and Broker

Liberum Capital Limited Tel: +44 (0)20 3100 2000

Michael Rawlinson / Tom Fyson / Christopher Kololian

Public & Investor Relations

Tavistock Communications Tel: +44 (0)20 7920 3150

Ed Portman / Simon Hudson / Mike Bartlett

About Mwana Africa PLC

Mwana Africa PLC is a pan-African, multi-commodity mining and development company. Mwana's principal operations and exploration activities cover gold, nickel, copper and diamonds in Zimbabwe, the DRC and South Africa.

Mwana's Freda Rebecca gold mine in Zimbabwe, having restarted operations in 2009, produced 47,770 ozs of gold in the 12 months to March 2012. Record quarterly gold production of 18,350 ozs was achieved in the third quarter of 2012.

In February 2012, Mwana announced a gold mineral resource of 2.01 million ounces at its Zani Kodo project in Democratic Republic of Congo. 

In August 2012, Mwana announced it had entered into a Cooperation and Development Agreement with Zhejiang Hailiang Company Limited to jointly explore its copper licence areas in the Katanga Province of the DRC.

In September 2012, Mwana's subsidiary, Bindura Nickel Corporation, carried out a restructuring and recapitalisation involving US$23m being invested into BNC which has allowed it to restart its Trojan nickel mine. First sale of concentrate to Glencore International is expected in Q2 2013.

Further information on the Company can be found at www.mwanaafrica.com.