Sovereign Mines of Africa PLC : Drilling Report

23 January 2012

Sovereign Mines of Africa PLC

("SMA" or "the Company")

Initial Drilling at Guinean Gold Project

Intercepts Significant Gold Mineralisation

SMA announces that it has identified wide intervals of significant gold, including 6.40 grammes per tonne ("gpt") over nine metres, 2.58 gpt over 14 metres and 2.08 gpt over 24 metres, intersected in initial drill holes at the Company's Mandiana-Magana project in the Republic of Guinea, West Africa. 

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

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

"These initial results are very encouraging.  Over 9,000 artisanal pits had already indicated the length and width of gold mineralisation and this initial drilling programme has now also confirmed gold mineralization at depth. 

"Equally important - the deep weathering and oxidization to depths of up to 120 metres indicate the potential for low-cost, open-pit bulk mining. 

"These drilling results cutting broad intervals of mineralization in excess of 1 gpt are for the most part very comparable to the initial results from RC drilling encountered at the Komana Prospect within the nearby multi-million ounce Yanfolila gold resource in Mali.  This relatively small initial drilling programme together with the extensive footprint of shallow artisanal excavations confirms to the Company that it is exploring in a very large gold-bearing system which now clearly warrants a major programme of resource delineation drilling."

The drill program tested two major northwest-trending zones of mineralization:

Yagbelen and Woyondjan, identified and defined by extensive artisanal mine workings and traceable for several kilometres within the project area.  The program included 21 reverse circulation drill holes (309 metres) and 4 diamond core holes (313 metres) drilled to maximum depths of 150 metres in profiles across both zones. 

Principal results for the reverse circulation holes are summarized below:

	Interval (m)			Grade
Drill Hole	From	To	Length	gpt Gold	Zone	Prospect
RCY 07	56	79	23	1.13	Yagbelen	Folontou
and	101	132	31	1.54
RCY 11	62	76	14	2.58	Yagbelen	Foulinibe
RCY 12	9	26	17	2.07	Yagbelen	Foulinibe
RCY 13	44	52	8	1.03	Yagbelen	Daoulemba
and	57	59	2	2.97
and	71	76	5	1.92
and	109	123	14	1.46
RCY14	39	44	5	1.42	Yagbelen	Daoulemba
RCY 15	0	12	12	0.88	Yagbelen	Daoulemba
RCW 19	10	13	3	2.57	Woyondjan	Woyondjan Main
and	23	30	7	1.27
and	121	132	11	2.39
RCW 20	65	67	2	2.36	Woyondjan	Woyondjan Main
RCW 21	0	24	24	2.08	Woyondjan	Woyondjan Main
and	49	52	3	1.04
and	99	108	9	6.4
RCW 22	103	119	16	1.06	Woyondjan	Woyondjan Old
RCW 23	42	49	7	1.77	Woyondjan	Woyondjan Old
RCD 03	63	76	13	1.05	Woyondjan Ext.	Damantere
and	97	107	10	1.1

 Notes:

1.          Composited assays for the above Table were calculated at a cut off grade of 0.3 gpt gold.

2.         Mineralised intervals presented above do not represent true widths. All drill holes are inclined 50° WSW except RCY-07 and 08 which were inclined ESE.  The Company currently interprets the mineralized zones to dip moderately to the northeast but, until structural analysis through measurements of oriented cores has been carried out, geometry cannot be reliably understood.

3.         A map showing positions of the drill holes can be viewed below.

Eighteen of the twenty-one drill holes were concentrated along four profiles across the main areas of artisanal mining within the Yagbelen and Woyondjan Zones.  The results confirm significant gold mineralization, indicated in earlier SMA pit sampling, with 19 of 21 holes containing at least 1 gpt gold in one metre intervals and 10 holes containing an average grade of +1 gpt gold over at least 10 metres.  The results also suggest continuity both along the interpreted northwest strike between drill profiles and at depth in overlapping holes on the same section.  Hole RCD-03, containing 1.05 gpt gold along 13 metres at the Damantere prospect some 2.5 km northwest of the Main Woyondjan workings, demonstrates potential strike extent well beyond the main areas of artisanal mining. A highlight of the drilling results was a one metre intercept assaying 50.3gpt (repeat analysis 56.7gpt gold) from 106 metres in RCW-21.

Results were also received for two diamond drill-holes completed at the start of the programme. This method of drilling through the intensely weathered oxidised zone was abandoned because of very poor core recovery (averaging below 50 percent) rendering results unreliable.  There was enough core to send samples for assay and  DHY-02 intersected 3.34 metres averaging 14.7 gpt gold from 8.66 metres and 3 metres averaging 8.97 gpt from 40 metres.  What this only qualitatively indicates is that DHY-02 also intersected gold mineralization and that this area should be redrilled. 

The mineralized zones tested are intensely weathered and oxidized to vertical depths up to 120 metres in all drill holes.  While no metallurgical test work has been carried out the deep weathering and oxidation has potentially favorable implications for good gold recoveries using conventional technology and low cost bulk mining by open pit methods.

Cash at bank at the end of December 2011 was slightly in excess of £1.2 million, so the Company has the resources to complete the next phase of exploration, which will consist of a further 5,000 metres of RC drilling, probably with some diamond tails to test the strike extension of the mineralised zones.

In the meantime the Company is continuing to progress exploration at its other exploration projects in Guinea, principally, Marela, Dalagna, and Kouroussa - which will assist in identifiying the best potential drill targets. 

Shareholders will be kept informed of material developments as they occur.

Qualified Person

The technical information in this release has been reviewed by 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-FUS04and 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                                                     [phone]      

[e-mail]

John Barry - Exploration Director                                                  [phone]      

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RIVINGTON STREET CORPORATE FINANCE, JOINT BROKER

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