Following approval received at shareholder meeting last week, Nyota Minerals Ltd. (NYO.AU) announced yesterday, June 14, 2010 that it acquires 80 percent interest in land package totaling over 4,500 km2 of highly prospective exploration site in Ethiopia.
The tenements (explorations sites) are located to the north of the Tulu Kapi project and exhibit the same major geological structures thought to control mineralization at Tulu Kapi. Nyota has issued 20 million shares to the vendors; the company also plans to make cash payments to the two vendors of GBP 60,000 in total upon completion of the tenement granting process. Tenements are proceeding through the final stage of the application process and are expected to be granted within the next two weeks.
The announcement followed the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank’s private sector lender, news of 3.4 million pounds investment in Ethiopia’s fledgling gold mining sector through Nyota Minerals two weeks ago.
Currently, Nyota is focusing on the exploration and development of gold projects in a new gold province in Ethiopia and a nickel deposit in Burundi. It also has gold projects in Swaziland with435 square kilometers exploration area.
Nyota holds three licenses in Ethiopia. The Tulu Kapi–Ankore and Yubdo Exploration Licenses are held for gold exploration, whilst the Yubdo Mining License is held for platinum mining. Nyota’s Exploration Licenses are located in western Ethiopia in Wellega Province, Oromia Regional State, in Western Ethiopia, approximately 360 kilometers west of the capital Addis Ababa.
The Yubdo Mining License is centered on Latitude 9° 10’ 00” South and Longitude 35° 35′ 00″ East. Nyota has a team of 4 Ethiopian geologists and 2 British geologists and is building a portfolio of assets at various stages of evaluation. Systematic reconnaissance and follow-up exploration is carried out on the license areas, according to the information obtained from the company.
In 2006 Minerva carried out a program of pitting over the ridge above and to the southwest of the present small-scale saprolite – laterite mining operation southeast of Yubdo village, in order to estimate the resource in this small area.
Based on the results of the pitting, GPMC has used a polygonal method to estimate a resource of 23,760 ounces (793kg) of platinum in 1,470,000 tons of laterite material with an average grade of 0.54g/t platinum within the limited area covered by the pitting program.
Nyota Minerals Limited is incorporated in Australia while 60 percent of shareholders are United Kingdom companies. Of these Chase Nominees Limited, Pershing Nominees Limited, Brewin Nominees Limited (Channel Islands), Allerton Horizon Limited and Ambrian Nominees Limited are the dominant ones in the company with substantial shares.
Australian companies own only 34 percent of Nyota, the information obtained from the company shows.