I don't believe that the mentioned "African Gold Zimbabwe" is AFG, but the article does demonstrate rapid resurgence of E&P in Zimbabwe:

Mining Giants Plan Massive Diamond Prospecting

The Herald (Harare)

January 22, 2004
Posted to the web January 22, 2004

Harare

MINING giants, De Beers Zimbabwe Prospecting Limited and Circle Three Mining Corporation are proposing a massive diamond prospecting project that will see the two companies prospecting for the mineral in Gweru, Harare, Bulawayo and Kadoma mining districts.

The two mining companies intend to prospect for diamond in areas covering a total of 448 180 hectares.


Another company, African Gold Zimbabwe, has also undertaken to prospect for gold on two areas measuring 120 550 hectares within the Harare and Gweru mining districts.

De Beers Zimbabwe Prospecting Limited, Circle Three Mining Corporation and African Gold Zimbabwe have applied to the Mining Affairs Board for an exclusive prospecting order for 12 areas under the four mining districts.

In the latest issue of the Government gazette, the Mining Affairs Board said De Beers, Circle Three Mining and African Gold Zimbabwe intend to prospect for diamonds and gold over an area of approximately 568 730 hectares from the three areas.

"The applicants intend to prospect for diamond within the areas, which have been reserved against prospecting pending determination of this application.

"Prospecting authority is sought upon registered base mineral blocks within the reservation," read part of the notice.

One of the two diamond prospecting projects to be undertaken by Circle Three Mining measures 65 000 hectares and is bounded by a line commencing on the Zimbabwe-Zambia border approximating five kilometres.

All areas, which have been earmarked for prospecting are within the 15 000 hectares and 65 000 hectares range and are mostly in the traditional mineral bearing areas of the country.

The proposal to prospect for diamond in the country comes at a time when the US$41 million Murowa Diamond Mine has started to operate following the successful relocation of 141 families which were on the mining site.

Mining is one of the sectors which has been depressed over the last five years but some of the players in the industry have said investors should look at non-traditional minerals.

An example that is often given is that of platinum, which is fast becoming the world's most lucrative mineral.

The mining of diamond in Zimbabwe is also fast gaining pace and it is expected that some of the mining projects would create a lot of employment.

Relevant Links

Southern Africa
Mining
Zimbabwe

We have not seen this much action since we moved up from the 6p area. I suspect more news is imminent and they are just trying to get as much stock as they can.

Fear not chaps, this is the time to top up not to sell. The money for development is in the bank and the management have their eye on expansion.

Some Large buys reported:

230,000 buy at 11 pence.
100,000 buy at 11.2 pence
9*50,000 buys reported at 11 pence today.

Gold at its highest for the day now at $402.30, up 5.10.

RNS Number:7746V
African Gold PLC
24 February 2004


Contacts:

John Teeling + 353 1 833 2833
Oliver Baring + 44 (0)7785 320567
Ian Rice + 44 0117 933 0020


24th February 2004


Option to Acquire Additional Gold Property in Ghana

The Directors are pleased to announce the signing of an exclusive option with
Ahanta Mining Co Ltd to acquire the Ahanta gold property located on the Ashanti
Belt in Ghana. Ahanta is located south and along strike from theSt. Jude/Hwini
Butre property (930,000oz Au) and the South Benso (0.5Moz Au). Soil and trench
sampling have defined a 1.2km-long zone of gold mineralisation open to the north
and south. Significant gold assays from trench samples are:

Trench No. Interval and Au grade g/t Au

T11 26m @ 2.43g/t Au
T8 12m @ 1.02g/t Au
T8 34m @ 0.64g/t Au
T7 32m @ 1.12 g/t Au
T5 4m @ 1.67 g/t Au
T4 12m @ 0.77g/t Au
T3A 6m @ 1.12 g/t Au
T2 8m @ 1.05 g/t Au
T2 32m @ 0.70 g/t Au

The potential for a bulk-minable open-pit gold deposit hosted in tuffaceous
sediments will be evaluated in the coming months. The Upper Birimian
volcano-sedimentary contact, commonly host to multi-million ounce gold deposits
in the Ashanti Belt, is located within the tenement. Due diligence on the
project is under way.

The company has the rights to earn an 80% interest in the property and has the
first rights of refusal to increase this to a maximum of 90%. An initial
consideration of US$20,000 has been paid. Further milestone payments are due on
the completion of due diligence and on the first, second and third anniversaries
of the agreement. The maximum aggregate consideration is US$155,000.

John Teeling, Chairman of AfricanGold commented "African Gold continues to
define and acquire mid to late stage gold properties in Ghana. The acquisition
of the Ahanta property is a major addition to what is developing into an
important Ghana gold portfolio and is an integral part of our strategy to become
a significant independent African gold miner.".

African Gold is an AIM listed company (AFG) with gold mining interests in Africa
www.africangoldplc.com


This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END

ACQKGGZZKDKGDZM

RNS Number:7746V
African Gold PLC
24 February 2004


Contacts:

John Teeling + 353 1 833 2833
Oliver Baring + 44 (0)7785 320567
Ian Rice + 44 0117 933 0020


24th February 2004


Option to Acquire Additional Gold Property in Ghana

The Directors are pleased to announce the signing of an exclusive option with
Ahanta Mining Co Ltd to acquire the Ahanta gold property located on the Ashanti
Belt in Ghana. Ahanta is located south and along strike from theSt. Jude/Hwini
Butre property (930,000oz Au) and the South Benso (0.5Moz Au). Soil and trench
sampling have defined a 1.2km-long zone of gold mineralisation open to the north
and south. Significant gold assays from trench samples are:

Trench No. Interval and Au grade g/t Au

T11 26m @ 2.43g/t Au
T8 12m @ 1.02g/t Au
T8 34m @ 0.64g/t Au
T7 32m @ 1.12 g/t Au
T5 4m @ 1.67 g/t Au
T4 12m @ 0.77g/t Au
T3A 6m @ 1.12 g/t Au
T2 8m @ 1.05 g/t Au
T2 32m @ 0.70 g/t Au

The potential for a bulk-minable open-pit gold deposit hosted in tuffaceous
sediments will be evaluated in the coming months. The Upper Birimian
volcano-sedimentary contact, commonly host to multi-million ounce gold deposits
in the Ashanti Belt, is located within the tenement. Due diligence on the
project is under way.

The company has the rights to earn an 80% interest in the property and has the
first rights of refusal to increase this to a maximum of 90%. An initial
consideration of US$20,000 has been paid. Further milestone payments are due on
the completion of due diligence and on the first, second and third anniversaries
of the agreement. The maximum aggregate consideration is US$155,000.

John Teeling, Chairman of AfricanGold commented "African Gold continues to
define and acquire mid to late stage gold properties in Ghana. The acquisition
of the Ahanta property is a major addition to what is developing into an
important Ghana gold portfolio and is an integral part of our strategy to become
a significant independent African gold miner.".

African Gold is an AIM listed company (AFG) with gold mining interests in Africa
www.africangoldplc.com


This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END

ACQKGGZZKDKGDZM

We have the expected good news. Just released now. A very strong buy now.

News on one more site left yet.

With the news on another site released and news on one more site still to come, I would expect the price to rise substantially over the next few days.

Price 12.0-13.5, up 8.5%.

Excellent.

Patience does certainly pay off. Maybe another AFD in the making.

LONDON (AFX) - African Gold PLC said it has signed an exclusive option with
Ahanta Mining Co Ltd to acquire the Ahanta gold property located on the Ashanti
Belt in Ghana.
Ahanta is located south and along strike from the St Jude/Hwini Butre
property and the South Benso. Soil and trench sampling have defined a 1.2
km-long zone of gold mineralisation open to the north and south.
The company has the rights to earn an 80 pct interest in the property and
has the first rights of refusal to increase this to a maximum of 90 pct.
An initial consideration of 20,000 usd has been paid and African Gold said
further milestone payments are due on the completion of due diligence and on the
first, second and third anniversaries ofthe agreement. The maximum aggregate
consideration is 155,000 usd.
newsdesk@afxnews.com
slm/

Price closed well at 11.5-13.0 pence. Having recovered from lows of 10.00-11.5 pence prior to the new release.

Several 100K buys have come through as delayed around 11-11.25 pence and a 106,000 buy has been reported at 13 pence.

Should be a strong blue day tomorrow and further rises should continue over the next few days/weeks.

Hi Sue!

Thanks for the great info u have posted here! Do you think the share price will exceed 17p this week and 20p after the final RNS.

Should get to 20 pence in the next ten days hopefully.

Excellent buying reported after close. Some very good buys indeed.

hi Sue,
do you think there will be any press coverage following this news today?

Hi there,

We may get a mention in some papers tomorrow or some mention in the Independent newspaper again on Saturday. More important is the instituional interest which we have constantly been seeing, ie. 10*100K buys today.

African Gold signs deal for Ghana site
Tuesday, February 24 16:39:44

(BizWorld)

African Gold, the London-listed company chaired by entrepreneur John Teeling, today said it has signed an exclusive option to acquire a gold property in Ghana.

African Gold signed the deal with Ahanta Mining Coin respect of the Ahanta gold property located on the Ashanti Belt in Ghana.
The company has the rights to earn an 80pc interest in the property and has the first rights of refusal to increase this to a maximum of 90pc.


An initial consideration of USD20,000 has been paid and African Gold said further payments are due on the completion of due diligence and on the first, second and third anniversaries of the agreement. The maximum aggregate consideration is USD155,000.

Soil and trench sampling of the Ahanta site have defined a 1.2 km-long zone of gold mineralisation open to the north and south.

Good to read your comments Sue Helen.
However, I hardly think that the buying reflects institutional interest.
I'm only a small private investor and I have on occaison bought 300k
shares of a company (especially penny stocks) and in this case that would only equate to 36,000+. Loose change for an institution, I would have thought.
Anyway, I have a more modest amount invested in AFG and look forward to further action in the next few days.
Regards to all holders.

Doing nicely today, up 4% at 12.0-13.5 pence.

Gold flat, speculative buying lifts silver


Spot silver rose in Asia as speculative precious metals players shifted their focus away from a steady gold market.

Buying from funds and other speculative players, notably from Japan, helped lift spot silver as high as $6.71 a troy ounce, traders said.

Silver was quoted at $6.67/oz, up 7 cents from Tuesday's Comex close. While the part-precious, part-industrial metal is fundamentally less appealing than gold or copper, speculative money was chasing silver on the belief that it represents a cheaper way of playing the metals market, a Tokyo trader with a large Japanese dealer said.

In addition, the correlation between silver and copper has strengthened of late, given silver's increasing use in electronic applications and its diminishing use in jewellery.

Thus silver also got a lift Tuesday from the roughly 2% gain in the London Metal Exchange copper price, a Sydney trader pointed out.

The buying interest also spilled over onto the Tokyo Commodity Exchange, where all silver futures contracts soared.

The most actively traded December 2004 contract jumped Y0.49 per gram to close at Y22.98/gram, while the new benchmark February 2005 contract closed at Y22.92 following its first day of trading. Volume across all contracts totalled 13,722 lots.

Speculative players also bid up spot platinum in early Asian trading Wednesday with the metal rising as high as $863.50 a troy ounce.

However, long liquidation eventually took hold, traders said, sending platinum down to $858/oz, down 50 cents from Tuesday's Nymex close.

Meanwhile, gold continued to tread water in Asia, as players awaited further direction from the all-important currency market.

Spot gold was quoted at $404.05 a troy ounce, down 25 cents from the Comex close. "For the short term, it looks like we will be range-bound on the euro, so that means gold will probably be range-bound too," the Tokyo trader explained.

Several traders and analysts who have noted the thinner-than-usual trading volumes of the past few days believe the yellow metal has settled into a roughly $400/oz to $405 near-term range.

However, any sudden move in the currency market, particularly the key euro-U.S. dollar cross-rate, would likely immediately be reflected in bullion, they say.

But following yesterday's Comex options expiry, which spurred buying and helped gold briefly outperform the euro, the expiry of over-the-counter options later today is also being watched closely by some players.

"The large OTC expiry today, will be an important event in the gold market with the possibility of a large move after the expiry has passed," UBS said in a note to its Asian clients Wednesday.

As in the spot market, gold was muted on Tocom Wednesday, with the most actively traded December 2004 contract closing unchanged at Y1,403/gram.

The new benchmark February 2005 contract made its debut with a close at Y1,401. Volume across all contracts totalled 66,210 lots.

Tocom platinum futures were mixed despite very heavy volume of 120,772 lots. The most actively traded December 2004 contract slipped Y1/gram to close at Y2,838 while the new February 2005 contract finished at Y2,820.

Finally, Tocom palladium jumped along with silver, with the December 2004 contract gaining Y18/gram to close at Y809. The new February 2005 contract wrapped up its first day at Y806 and total volume reached 1,715 lots.


25 February 2004