Irish mining company announces new shares placement

African Gold, the Clontarf based mining company, has finalised a placing of 27,077,777 new ordinary £0.01 (€0.01478) shares at a price of £0.09 (€0.133) raising a total of £2,437,000 (€3,602,894.70 ) from institutional and private investors.

The funds will be used to undertake an active gold exploration programme on the recently acquired concession in the Akrokeri area of the Ashanti Gold Belt in Ghana, and to enable the company to further its stated strategy of investing in gold mining projects in Africa.

Application will be made for the new shares to be admitted to AIM and it is expected that admission will take place and dealings will commence on February 20, 2004.

Chairman John J Teeling is also chairman of African Diamonds PLC, which announced recent diamond finds as a result of sample drilling in Botswana.