African Eagle seeks partners for nickel, copper

By Shapi Shacinda

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - African Eagle Limited will seek an equity partner to finance an up to $450 million nickel project in Tanzania and could sell some copper and gold projects to raise funds, the company said on Monday.

Mark Parker, African Eagle's managing director, said a bankable feasibility study and business plan for Dutwa in Tanzania, the company's main project in Africa, would be completed by mid-2011, before starting development.

Parker said the junior exploration mining company, with interests in copper, gold and nickel projects, had suspended a 20,000 tonnes per year copper project in Zambia due to difficulties in raising funds.

"We are looking at bringing in joint venture partners or we will sell one of those projects outright, principally to raise capital to take the Dutwa nickel project forward," Parker told Reuters in a telephone interview from London.

"We will be looking at capital cost of around $350 million to $450 million."

Parker said African Eagle could also raise funds through debt finance.

"The nickel production per annum will be in the order of 20,000-30,000 tonnes of contained nickel. So we will be looking at processing two to three million tonnes per annum at 1.1 percent or 1.2 percent," Parker said.

Parker said Dutwa's current resource of around 30 million tonnes at 1.1 percent nickel could reach 50 million tonnes after African Eagle signed an optional deal with Safina A.S of the Czech Republic for additional nickel deposits and further drilling.