AfriOre expands in Republic of Congo

Under a renegotiated agreement, AfriOre (AFO-V) has agreed to acquire a half interest in a large lead-zinc property in the Republic of Congo.

The 696-sq.-km concession, currently held by privately owned Purity Metals, covers the dormant M’Fouati and Hapilo mines and hosts three zones of mineralization. These contain an estimated 3-4 million tonnes grading 12% lead plus lenses of high-grade zinc. AfriOre says the drill-indicated resource appears to be amenable to open-pit mining at a stripping ratio of 1-to-1.

AfriOre previously had agreed to purchase Primary Metals for up to US$1.1 million and 2 million shares (T.N.M., July 8/96).

Under the new agreement, AfriOre will prepare a prefeasibility study to determine the status of the metallurgical plant on the concession and estimate metal recoveries. If feasibility work is warranted, AfriOre will finance the study, thereby increasing its interest to 60%.

In addition, if AfriOre acquires the rights to another (as yet unnamed) base metal property, it will buy out Primary Metals in exchange for US$35,000 and 980,000 AfriOre shares.

Meanwhile, a prospecting arm of De Beers Consolidated Mines has agreed to spend $1.6 million to gain a 60% stake in two of AfriOre’s diamond projects in Botswana. As part of the agreement, De Beers Prospecting Botswana will finance and operate all work on the Jwaneng East and Orapa South licences until AfriOre, its partner Gencor and DeBeers all agree to proceed with a feasibility study on either property.

Once that study is approved, AfriOre and Gencor can either retain their 40% interest or dilute it down to 10%. If they elect to retain their interest, the partners must reimburse De Beers for their share of expenditures and agree to contribute 40% of all future spending. If they choose the alternative, the companies must agree to increase their interest to 25% later, should De Beers decide to develop a mine.