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

9p now yipee.

what is the next resistance, where is likely to open tomorrow (as momentum is gathering) txs

likely up again

Yipeee go AFG. here we come 20p

Lot of small sells this am.

Anything above 9.88p is a buy at the moment

Apparently 8.4p is the support level?

what happened here back to 8p. Oh well it will probablu take slightly longer to get to 20p

FT.com

African Gold
Published: November 20 2004 02:00 | Last updated: November 20 2004 02:00

With gold prices trading at a 16-year high, African Gold's latest news was greeted warmly. The shares rose 39.1 per cent to 8p this week after the gold exploration company announced it had discovered rich deposits of gold ore in one of its test sites in Ghana. Further tests are required to determine if the site has commercial potential. The shares received another boost following the disclosure that Merrill Lynch Investment Managers had increased its stake to 7.7 per cent after the company raised 1.4m through an offering of 28m new shares as it attempts to become a leader in African gold exploration.

AFG is a large potential winner

nice to see AFG ticking up nicely again. with gold looking interesting again and merril lynch being interested and the recent news, i am very interested to see how far these will go.... any ideas ladies and gents?

African Gold PLC
02 December 2004


2 December 2004

Updated Drilling Results from Konongo / Owere
and completion of acquisition of 70% equity holding in project

African Gold is pleased to announce further positive drilling results from the
Konongo / Owere gold project in Ghana. Economic gold grades have now been
obtained in all twenty one drill holes analysed to date.

The latest seven results are shown in the table below. Fourteen drill hole
results have previously been reported from Konongo and assays from a further
seventeen holes are awaited.

Drill Hole Results

Hole No From (m) To (m) (m) Au (g/t)

OBAPC-015 197.0 201.0 4.0 3.58
205.0 207.0 2.0 4.25
OBAPC-016 105.0 107.0 2.0 4.27
113.0 121.0 8.0 6.09
149.0 151.0 2.0 2.55
153.0 155.0 2.0 5.63
160.0 162.0 2.0 2.30
OBAPC-021 177.0 182.0 5.0 6.40
183.0 185.0 2.0 1.57
191.0 192.0 1.0 5.73
OBAPC-023 133.0 142.0 9.0 1.90
OBAPC-024 146.0 148.0 2.0 2.20
174.0 177.0 3.0 3.68
191.0 194.0 3.0 23.45
200.0 202.0 2.0 4.64
205.0 208.0 3.0 7.07

OBAPC-025 146.0 154.0 8.0 2.97
OBAPC-027 167.0 169.0 2.0 1.94
176.0 180.0 4.0 3.85


African Gold recently made the final payment of $1 million to the vendors of the
Konongo mining lease and now holds 70% of the total equity with Talos, a local
Ghanaian company holding 20% and the Ghanaian government holding 10%.
Ministerial approval from the Government of Ghana for the necessary transfer of
the Mining leases has also now been granted.

Oliver Baring, co-chairman of African Gold, commented 'The continuing strong
drilling results from Konongo are very encouraging. This news puts us on track
to proving up more than 1 million ounces of gold from our operations in Ghana in
2005'.

Are these true width or apparent width intersections? Seems to be the latter in which case the results are meaningless without knowing the angle of the drill hole and the intersection angle with the mineralised zone. Are the results from drill core or reverse circulation drilling?
Is the gold free milling or refractory? If refractory the treatment cost will be high.
This has to be an open pit target - the grades will not support an underground operation. What is the surface terrain like and what is the stripping ratio for these hole intersections?
The note says economic grades have been obtained. How can that statement be made at this stage? "Economical" implies that studies have been carried out that demonstrates the mining and treatment of these gold resources will be profitable under reasonable gold price assumptions. Where is the evidence of that?

good questions.

the sampling has been carried out inhouse, could the misleading/biased. BE WARNED - under investigation????

poes
are u saying the results are under investigation or u think they should be investigated.
Please respond as u do suggest that u know something that is not generaly known.
Of course u could just be sowing doubts.

Todays Investor Chronicle -

3 December 2004

AFRICAN GOLD (AFG)

'My word is my bond' is an age-old stock market phrase but, nowadays, it can clearly be misinterpreted. Back in December 2003, African Gold raised 400,000 via the issue of 40m shares at 1p, with warrants. A number of new directors came on board, led by Oliver Baring and Hank Slack, both of whom have held senior positions at Anglo American. A number of other investors joined in, too, and, in less than two months, the share price soared to more than 14p.

However, over the following six months, the share price fell almost as quickly to a low of 4p. Why was this? The answer is that some of the new investors (but not the new directors) seem to have misinterpreted verbal instructions not to sell early and, to date, have sold almost 23m shares - and are still selling.

But the worst may be over for the share price. The new board has been quick to change direction. Instead of focusing on one gold mine in Zimbabwe, the company now has four gold properties in Ghana on the Ashanti Gold Belt. The top drilling priority there is Konongo, where all the first 14 200-metre holes drilled have produced commercial gold grades.

Best news of all is that the big investor behind a recent 1.4m private placing at 5p is gold bug Merrill Lynch. It invested more than 1m for an 8 per cent stake. The money is necessary because African Gold is currently spending more than $400,000 a month on exploration work in Ghana - and employing 50 staff in the process. Slightly better economic conditions in Zimbabwe - annual inflation is down from over 300 per cent to around 200 per cent - has also encouraged the company to refurbish plant at its Inez mine there. Up until now, the mine has been on a care-and-maintenance basis. African Gold has also been awarded a further 10 exploration licences in Zimbabwe.

Why Gold Stocks?
They Provide the Biggest Bang for your Buck.

During a gold bull market, I have a strong preference for gold stocks over either gold bullion or gold coins, largely because gold shares are leveraged to the price of gold. In other words, as the price of gold rises, profits of gold-mining stocks rise more in percentage terms. Generally, over the longer term, the share prices of major gold-mining firms rise by a factor of two or three times more than the price of gold.

The reason gold-mining profits are leveraged to the price of gold is obvious. A rising gold price does not lead to a rising cost of production. Therefore, for companies that are already profitable, incremental revenues received from selling gold at a higher price flow straight to the company's pre-tax bottom line. For companies that are unprofitable, a rise in the gold price can suddenly lift them into profitability and with that, the share prices can sometimes rise dramatically.

Successful junior gold-mining companies, or those companies that are not yet in production, frequently rise by a factor of 5 to 10 times more than the price of gold. Not only does a rising gold price make the gold in the ground more valuable, but junior gold-mining firms frequently make gold discoveries that raise the intrinsic per share value very dramatically, compared to what a discovery of similar size would do for a senior mining firm. For example, if a major mining firm with 100 million ounces and 200 million shares of stock outstanding discovered a million-ounce gold deposit, it would have increased its reserves by just 1% and added 0.005 oz. gold/share. On the other hand, if a junior gold-mining firm with 20 million shares outstanding and just 200,000 ounces of reserves made that same one-million-ounce gold discovery, it would have increased its reserves by 400% and the gold equity in the ground would have risen from 0.01 oz. gold per share to 0.06 oz. gold/share. Therefore, in a secular gold bull market, I am partial to gold shares, but even more so toward junior gold-mining shares.

Another reason I favor gold shares is that while gold bullion itself was made illegal to own during the 1930s, gold shares were not. We hope our government will never make the same foolish decision to make gold ownership illegal again. But if they do, there is a precedent for believing gold shares may not be affected.

... (Advertising material)

Rumours on ADVFN that AFG are in merger talks.

As per AFG website:


Company Profile

AIM - Company incorporated in 1988 with 3000 shareholders
Nov 2003: Efforts to re-focus the company away from Zimbabwe
Private Placement resulting in O. Baring, J. Anderson, H. Slack join the board
Acquisition of Ghana Gold Properties - Jan 04 - May 04.
Acquisitions Completed May 26 2004
Significant acquisition / merger under discussion.
285 m shares in issue, market cap 17m @ 6p.