Wayu Boda Gold Licence - Issue of Equity

Alecto Minerals plc / EPIC: ALO / Market: AIM / Sector: Exploration & Development

16 July 2012

Alecto Minerals plc ('Alecto' or 'the Company')

Wayu Boda Gold Project, Ethiopia - Issue of Equity

Alecto Minerals plc, the AIM listed multi-commodity exploration and development company with projects in Ethiopia and Mauritania, is pleased to announce that it has completed the 100% acquisition of Rift Valley Resources Ltd ('Rift Valley'), owner of the highly prospective 945.5 sq km Wayu Boda Gold Project ('Wayu Boda') located in the mineral rich central-southern Adola greenstone belt in southern Ethiopia.

Alecto has issued and allotted 12,898,286 new ordinary shares of 0.7 pence each in the capital of the Company to the vendors of Rift Valley in satisfaction of the second share based payment due under the terms of the share purchase agreement, further details of which can be found in the announcement dated 25 November 2011. Alecto has applied for the ordinary shares, which will rank pari passu with the Company's existing ordinary shares in issue, to be admitted to trading on AIM ('Admission'). It is expected that Admission will be effective and that dealings will commence on 20 July 2012.

The vendors have agreed not to dispose of the consideration shares for 12 months following their allotment.

The total enlarged issued share capital of the Company following Admission will be 358,483,993 ordinary shares of 0.7 pence each in the Company. The above figure may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the share capital of the Company under the Disclosure and Transparency Rules.

As a result of the issue of equity to the vendors of Rift Valley, the following shareholders have crossed reportable thresholds:

**ENDS**

For further information, please visit www.alectominerals.com or contact:

Notes:

Alecto Minerals plc is an AIM listed exploration company focussed on Africa with a diverse portfolio of exploration assets in Mauritania and Ethiopia. Also, the Company is currently conducting due diligence on the 711 sq km bauxite licence 223 located in the highly prospective south west coastal region of Guinea which already has established infrastructure and producing bauxite operations. The Company believes the project has the potential to host an in-situ bauxite resource of over 500 million tonnes. 

Additionally, in Mauritania, it has three gold and base metal development licences totalling 1,902 sq km and two uranium licences totalling 1,592 sq km in the highly prospective Mauritanide mobile belt. It also holds the 1,953 sq km gold exploration licence in the highly prospective Aysid-Metekel region of north western Ethiopia and the 945 sq km Wayu Boda gold licence in the mineral-rich central-southern Adola greenstone belt in southern Ethiopia. 

The Company is committed to conducting exploratory work across its portfolio, designed to strengthen its knowledge of the assets and delineate targets for further exploration. In tandem, the Board continues to evaluate a number of synergistic assets to build shareholder value.