African Aura hits gold in Cameroon on heels of merger news

Vancouver – The beginning of July is bringing big news out of African Aura Resources (AAZ-V): first the junior announced plans to merger with Mano River Resources (MNO-V, MNRVF-O), then it hit some short, high-grade gold intercepts at its Batouri project in Cameroon.

African Aura has results in hand for the first four holes of a 30-hole, phase II drill program at Batouri. The current program, like the last, is focused on the Kambele prospect, which is located in the centre of the 1,000-sq. km project in eastern Cameroon.

Each hole intercepted several mineralized intercepts. Hole 68 first hit gold at 11 metres depth, returning 10.61 grams gold per tonne over 1.5 metres, then hit mineralization again at 25 metres downhole, returning 5.78 grams gold over 9 metres. At 66 metres depth the drill hit 1.61 grams gold over 1 metre; finally at 87 metres depth the drill returned 12.57 grams gold over 4 metres.

Collared 100 metres west, hole 69 also hit its best intercepts near surface: 10.71 grams gold over 4.1 metres from 38 metres downhole, followed by 43.56 grams gold over 2 metres from 46 metres depth. The drill also encountered four 1-metre intercepts grading less than 1 gram gold at less than 100 metres depth.

Hole 67, collared 100 metres east of hole 68, returned five short intercepts in 53 metres of drilling, the best of which assayed 1.39 grams gold over 3 metres from just 5 metres depth. And hole 72 hit four intercepts: 0.95 gram gold over 1.5 metres from 20 metres depth, 3.32 grams gold over 2 metres at 64 metres below surface, 2.7 grams gold over 4 metres a few metres later, and finally 1.13 grams gold over 1 metres from 80 metres downhole.

African Aura says assay results from a further 25 holes, some of which contain visible gold, are expected during July.

The first phase of drilling at Kambele, completed in 2008, also returned promising intercepts, such as 65.9 grams gold over 2.7 metres, 49.16 grams gold over 1.5 metres, 43.3 grams gold over 1.5 metres, and 131.95 grams over 1 metre.

Results to date define of a shallowly dipping gold target comprising two or more sub-horizontal, sub-parallel zones of quartz veining. Each of the zones is up to 10 metres thick; both dip slightly to the north and remain open down dip. To date the target has been traced for 500 metres strike and down 700 metres dip.

The current drill program is designed to delineate an initial inferred resource at Kambele. The 30 holes are arranged along five fences spaced 100 metres apart, covering an area that has been worked extensively by artisanal miners.

Aura has been working at Batouri since 2006, completing a soil sampling program, a combined induced polarization-resistivity survey, and one drill program to date. The property sits on the transition between tropical rainforest to the south and open tree savannah to the north and is accessible by road from the capital Yaounde, which is 420 km to the west.

The other major news from African Aura is its plan to merge with Mano River. The two companies have signed a definitive combination agreement, pursuant to which Mano River is offering 1.57 of its shares for every one African Aura share. African Aura shareholders will meet at the end of July to vote on the merger.

Mano River brings to the new company the New Liberty gold deposit in western Liberia, which hosts 1.4 million oz. gold and is ready for a production decision. Mano River also brings a 38.5% interest in the Putu iron project, this one in southeastern Liberia, where SeverStal is the majority owner. The joint venture partners are advancing Putu towards a pre-feasibility study in late 2010 and this year are working through a multi-rig, 27,000-metres drill program.

On news of the Batouri gold intercepts African Aura’s share price gained 5¢ to close at 13¢. The company has a 52-week trading range of 2.5¢ to 20.5¢ and has 67 million shares outstanding.