Sovereign Mines of Africa PLC
("SMA" or "the Company")

 Encouraging Third Phase drilling results merit estimation of a maiden gold resource

  •  SMA cuts 43 metres at 5.91 gpt gold, at its Mandiana-Magana gold project in Guinea.
  • Maiden independent resource estimate expected early next month.

SMA is pleased to report continuing strong results from its flagship gold project in Guinea, West Africa. One of the highlights of drilling completed in the recent Phase III drilling programme at the Mandiana-Magana gold project was a 43 metre interval cut averaging 5.91 gpt gold. Significantly this is in a hole located at the extreme north end of the drilling grid at the Yagbelen prospect, where the strike length remains open.

The Phase III program was focused on expansion and infill drilling at the principal Yagbelen and Woyondjan prospects (as noted in the RNS announcement of 8 May 2013). This is in preparation for an initial project resource estimate commissioned to SRK and expected early next month.  The program comprised  58 reverse circulation (RC) drill holes for 8,007 metres for a project total to date of 15,593 metres and diamond tails on 3 holes totalling 228 metres.

The latest drill results confirm and extend gold mineralization at Yagbelen, which remains open in all directions, both along its 1,000 metre strike length and at vertical depths up to 200 metres.  This vertical depth of weathering is, in our opinion, exceptional by West African standards and provides the opportunity for relatively low-cost open-pit mining combined with the prospect of potentially high recoveries of gold.

John Barry, SMA's Director of Exploration, commented:

"We are now realizing our objective of delivering a significant maiden gold resource at Mandiana-Magana, and look forward to SRK's maiden estimate next month. Establishing a preliminary gold inventory for the project creates tangible value beyond the release of announcing drilling results, however exciting that may be. In my view, to reach this milestone at this stage will be an exceptional return for just over 15,000 metres of drilling. The industry has to increasingly explore outlying parts of the Birimmian goldbelts of West Africa to make big discoveries."

"Great credit is due to our team on the ground, our partners in Guinea and our drilling contractors for the professional implementation of this most recent drilling programme. We believe these are very encouraging initial steps in the building of a substantial economic gold resource on this property." 

Drillholes at Woyondjan confirm internal continuity within the zone which also remains open along its 750 metre strike length and at depths up to 150 metres.  Highlights of drilling at Yagbelen and Woyondjan are summarized below and full results together with a map can be found by following this link: http://www.sovmines.com/mandiana-magana-maps/

Note 1: True thickness interpreted as approximately 75 percent of the interval.
Note 2: Grades above 31g/t have not been capped until the resources estimate with associated statistics has been completed.

As in the previous programs, Phase III drill holes cut high-grade lodes generally less than three metres in width within much broader lower-grade intervals (a cut-off of 0.25 g/t gold was used).  Bonanza grade quartz veins were intercepted at Yagbelen in drill-holes RCY-117 which cut one metre of 147 g/t gold from eight metres, RCY 114 which cut one metre of 97.4 g/t gold from 184 metres and RCY-94 which cut one metre of 68.8 g/t gold from 168 metres and probably explain the intensity of artisanal activity in the areas.  Of much greater significance for potential commercial bulk mining of these gold deposits is the presence of continuous broader zones of lower-grade gold mineralization which form a sheath to the higher-grade vein system and may reflect mobilization within the exceptionally deep weathering profile which reaches vertical depths of 200 metres at Yagbelen.  This broader lower-grade gold mineralization is characterized by hydrothermal alteration including sulphidation and quartz veining within the intensely weathered profile.

At the Yagbelen main zone a total of 28 RC drill-holes were completed for a total of 4,098 metres - approximately half of the total metres drilled in Phase 3.  Of the 23 drill holes for which assays are available 21 intersected significant gold mineralization defined with a lower threshold of three metres averaging 0.4 g/t gold. Only two drill holes at Yagbelen failed to intersect significant mineralization.

At the Woyondjan zone a total of 11 RC drill-holes were completed for a total of 1,655 metres.  Of ten drill-holes for which assays are available, all intersected significant gold mineralization as defined above with highlights of 47 metres averaging 1.27 g/t gold from 44 metres in RCW-107, including five metres averaging 7.89 g/t from 52 metres, and 17 metres averaging 1.26 g/t gold from three metres in RCW-104.

An additional eight holes totalling 954 metres were also drilled at the Damantere prospect located one km north and along strike from Yagbelen.  Four of six holes for which assays are available contained significant gold mineralization, as defined above, including six metres in RCD-108 grading 2.50 g/t gold.

Drilling was also carried out at four previously untested outlying gold prospects within the concession area.  Twelve holes totalling 1,306 metres tested areas of shallow artisanal gold workings supported by soil gold geochemical anomalies at the Folouni, Sidylamin, Masafren, and Nomatou prospects (see map link).  Anomalous gold mineralization, up to 3 metres averaging 0.80 gpt gold at Folouni and 13 metres at 0.5 gpt gold at Sidylamin, was intercepted in this limited initial drill test.  Additional exploration of these prospects and other untested areas of shallow artisanal mining activity remains an important part of the Company's ongoing programme at Mandiana-Magana.

The latest drilling has now been incorporated into the drill-hole assay database for the project.  All necessary quality control and quality assurance checks have been completed and SRK (Cardiff) have been commissioned to produce a maiden inferred resource for the two principal zones at Yagbelen and Wyondjian, results of their work should be available next month.

The property is located within the productive Siguiri gold region close to Gold Fields' Yanfolila multi-million ounce gold development project in Mali. It is the site of extensive artisanal gold mining which, prior to this drilling campaign by SMA had never been drilled or evaluated by modern exploration methods.

The Company also has highly prospective targets at its Marela and Dalagna gold properties within the Archean shield of Guinea.

Qualified Person

The technical information in this release has been reviewed by the Company's Exploration Director, John Barry, P.Geo, a Competent or Qualified Person as defined by PERC, JORC and NI 43-101.

Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC)

Samples are sent to the ALS laboratory in Bamako in Mali.  ALS is part of the ALS Group, which is a global leader in the provision of analytical services to the international mining industry.  At the lab in Bamako samples were prepared (code Prep 22-2) and then decomposed by fire assay (code Au-AA26) with AAS finish. The entire sample is dried, coarse crushed and pulverized to better than 85 % of the material passing through a 75 micron (Tyler 200 mesh) screen.  A split of 250g is then pulverized to better than 85% passing 75 micron and homogenised.  A 50g sample is then decomposed by fire assay fusion FA-FUS03 & FA-FUS04 and analysed by atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS).

ALS Chemex has developed and implemented a Quality Management System (QMS) at each of its laboratories.  ALS Chemex laboratory operations are covered by ISO 9001:2000 certification for the "provision of assay and geochemical analytical services" by QMI Quality Registrars, and accredited to ISO 17025 standards in various jurisdictions.  All laboratories are operating under the same quality system and use the same standard operating procedures (SOP). :  The ALS (Chemex) Laboratory in Bamako is working under a combination of ALS Chemex Vancouver and Johannesburg supervision.  At ALS Chemex an internal Quality Control Group coordinates all inter-lab round robin work, and also directs all laboratories to participate in various external proficiency testing programs.

ALS Chemex QA/QC involves the preparation of every 50th sample at the crushing stage and 20th sample at the pulverization stage are tested for fineness by screening.  Samples are analysed in batches of 24which includes one, blank, certified reference material (standard) and two repeats.  In addition SMA inserts one standard, blank and duplicate in every 20 samples submitted to the laboratory.

Ends

Enquiries:

Sovereign Mines of Africa PLC:

David Pearl F.C.A. - Chairman +353 696 8961
david.pearl@sovmines.com
John Barry - Exploration Director +353 8 7669 5608
Nathan Steinberg - Finance Director +44 20 7269 7680

Shore Capital - Nominated Adviser & Broker
Toby Gibbs / Bidhi Bhoma - Corporate Finance
Jerry Keen - Corporate Broking +44 20 7408 4090

Square 1 Consulting Limited
David Bick / Mark Longson +44 20 7929 5599

Newgate Threadneedle
Graham Herring / Richard Gotla +44 20 7653 9858

Notes to Editors

Sovereign Mines of Africa Plc is a mineral exploration company incorporated in England and Wales and headquartered in London. At the end of 2007, the founders of the Company saw an opportunity to pool their collective expertise and experience in order to form joint ventures for mineral exploration with governments in Africa. The Republic of Guinea in West Africa was identified as the first target and this ultimately gave rise to the establishment of the Company in 2010.

The Company has entered into a cooperative joint-venture with the Government of Guinea (the "Sovereign Partnership Structure"), pursuant to which the Government was granted a 40 per. cent. equity stake in Sovereign Mines of Guinea, the operating company of the group. The Directors believe that this collaborative approach gives the Company unusual advantages compared with other small exploration companies and as a result it has been able to acquire early stage substantial and highly prospective properties, any of which could, in the Directors' opinion, become a significant gold asset.

distributed by