Singida Preliminary Metallurgical Study Results

SHANTAGOLD LIMITED ("Shanta" or the "Company") SINGIDA PROJECT: PRELIMINARY METALLURGICAL STUDY RESULTS ANNOUNCEMENT Shanta is pleased to announce that SGS South Africa (Pty) Ltd has completed a preliminary general mineralogical and gold deportment study for the Singida project in central Tanzania. The tests suggest that overall recoveries by milling and CIL will be better than 90%. Three of the prospects (Gold Tree, Jem and Corn Patch West) containing predominantly coarse gold grains achieved recoveries of 94.4%, 97.6% and 97.1% respectively, and two prospects (Kaiser Chief and Gustav) containing significant proportions of fine grained gold locked in sulphides achieved recoveries of 84.8% and 85.5% respectively, by direct cyanidation. The studies were conducted on chips obtained from RC drilling completed during 2007 from the Gold Tree, Jem, Kaiser Chief, Gustav and Corn Patch West prospects. Gold speciation, gold particle size, liberation/exposure characteristics and mineral association and composition studies were complemented with gravity concentration and cyanidation test work. An overall predicted metallurgical response and possible effective and practical metallurgical routes have been proposed. The methodology included sample preparation and milling, assay, XRF analysis, total sulphur and organic carbon and arsenic determination. This was followed by grading analysis, heavy liquid separation, gravity concentration and X-ray diffraction on subsamples, and QEMSCAN Bulk Mineralogical Analysis to determine the mineralogical composition of each sample and the gold occurrences. Cyanide leach tests were conducted on subsamples of the original composites and on gravity tails samples, occluded gold was determined by hot acid and CIL dissolution and a split aliquot of the gravity tails of each sample underwent diagnostic leach tests. The following general observations and conclusions were reached from this test work. The gold grain-distribution is noted as highly variable, some samples containing relatively coarse gold and the gold grades ranged between 4.2g/t and 13.45g/t and silver between more than1g/t and 2.2g/t. The arsenic content is relatively high, up to 1.51%, confirming the presence of arsenopyrite. Gravity separation using heavy liquid separation and Falcon Concentration was used, and the two tests indicate the high amenability of the ore to gravity concentration. Between 61% and 78% of the gold reported to the HLS sinks. The Falcon Concentrator gold upgrading compared fairly well with the HLS, except for the Gustav and Kaiser Chief samples. The total gold recovery by gravity varies between ~34% and 79%. Direct cyanidation tests revealed that between ~84% and 97% of the gold is recoverable by that method. Diagnostic leach tests of the gravity tails recovered between 77% and 87% of the gold and carbon in leach resulted in additional gold recovery of between 0.9% and 6.4%. CIL process gold recoveries on gravity tails are expected to be between 79% and 93%. Only two of the five samples contained significant amounts of refractory gold and overall, gold recoveries by milling and CIL are expected to be better than 90%. These early metallurgical tests strongly suggest that the process would consist of an upfront gravity circuit to recover the coarse gold prior to cyanidation and that both process capital and operating costs will be low. In May 2009, Shanta announced an increased resource at Singida to more than 1 million ounces in five prospects. Current work programmes include trenching of near surface extensions to these known targets including particularly the Gold Tree and Jem prospects. These positive metallurgical results firmly establish the potential economic importance of this project and, in line with the strategy to advance the projects towards production, further more comprehensive metallurgical test work and preliminary mining studies and resource drilling are envisaged for later in the year when additional funding has been secured. For further information: Shanta Gold Limited http://www.shantagold.com Walton Imrie Mobile: +27 (0) 82 444 2851 David Scott Mobile: + 255 (0) 784 366146 Fairfax I.S. PLC Ewan Leggat / Laura Littley +44 (0) 20 7598 5368 GLOSSARY JORC - The Joint Ore Reserves Committee. The Australasian Code for Reporting of Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves (the 'JORC Code' or 'the Code'), which sets out minimum standards, recommendations and guidelines for Public Reporting of exploration results, mineral resources and ore reserves in Australasia. Measured Resource. An in-situ mineral resource calculated with a high confidence level to which economic parameters have not been applied. Also that part of a mineral resource where the data used for inspection, sampling and measurement is of sufficient quality and density such that the geological character, continuity, grade and nature are sufficiently well understood to define the location and characteristics of mineralisation with a high degree of confidence Indicated Resource. An in-situ mineral resource calculated with a moderate confidence level to which economic parameters have not been applied. Inferred Resource. An in-situ mineral resource calculated with a low confidence level to which economic parameters cannot be applied. QEMSCAN Bulk Mineralogical Analysis - QEMSCAN is an automated process mineralogical instrument consisting of a base scanning electron microscope, equipped with four light element energy dispersive X-ray detectors, a micro-analyser and an electronic processing unit that acquires and processes chemical, textural and liberation data. It reveals textures in the deposit and exports this data to 3D imaging software, performs automated trace mineral searches to identify precious or rare minerals like gold in the material and can provide liberation and grain size data. XRF - X-ray Fluorescence is the emission of characteristic "secondary" (or fluorescent) X-rays from a material that has been excited by bombarding with high-energy X-rays or gamma rays and this phenomenon is used for elemental and chemical analysis, whereby a sample of some of the rock is analysed for its elemental composition, determining what elements are present, and how much of each are present. ---END OF MESSAGE--- This announcement was originally distributed by Hugin. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
UK 100

Latest directors dealings