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Strategic Natural Resources, Sunrise Resources, Uranium Resources news briefs

Contributed by Fox-Davies Capital

Strategic Natural Resources has released a positive trading, operations and resource update for its 74% owned subsidiary, Elitheni Coal and remains on track for first shipments of coal by the end of the year. The new SAMREC compliant coal resource is a much better than expected 77% increase from 150.1Mt to 266.29Mt is split 79.08Mt Measured, 73.53Mt Indicated and 113.68Mt inferred. This is significant as initial assessments suggested the resource would increase by 53Mt and July SNR announced that one of its Big 5 goals was to double the resource base by 2014. With this resource increase the Company has already nearly achieved that. The updated reserve estimate for the Elitheni coalfield will be published in the near future. After the first blast on 1st June the opencast mining has delivered 100 kt of raw coal which has been stockpiled and is ready to be processed. An additional 2 cuts of opencast coal on its eastern area is ready for extraction and is expected to be mined in November, which will yield an additional 20kt of coal available, exceeding earlier expectations. Meanwhile the first underground mining equipment, a Sandvik AM10 low seam continuous miner has arrived on site. Additional Drill & Blast equipment is also due to be delivered which will allow the Company to commence and operate two underground mining sections within near succession of each other and achieve a production capability of 800ktpa, the first of its "Big 5" goals. The purchase of an additional continuous miner is being negotiated with Sandvik and is anticipated to be finalised before the year end, further increasing the underground production capability to circa 1mtpa of ROM coal. Following the successful dry commissioning of the washing plant in September, the relocation to site and final assembly of the plant will be completed this month. The plant is expected to become fully operational in the first week of November 2012, with a capability of washing 4.5kt of coal per day, or 135kt per month, with a primary feed of 225tph. A secondary washing plant providing additional capacity of 225tph has been ordered, enabling the Company to wash a middlings product from its Anthracite production. This additional capacity is expected to be delivered by the end of February 2013, enabling a capability of over 400tph, or 250kt per month. The first vessel shipping dates have now been confirmed and the Company will ship its first cargo on Anthracite to Brazil later this year. SNR also plans to re-wash a middlings product to a thermal specification for a January/February shipment.

Sunrise Resources PLC announced it has entered into a £3M Equity Financing Facility with Darwin Strategic Limited. Darwin is a majority owned subsidiary of Henderson Global Investors' AlphaGen Volantis Fund.

Uranium Resources PLC announced it has successfully completed the 2012 drilling programme at its 100%-owned Mtonya project in south-western Tanzania where it is aiming to delineate a world-class uranium resource amenable to in-situ recovery. 120 diamond drill holes completed in 2012, for a total of 26,485 meters. Mineralised intercepts from the recent drill holes include such high-grade Tier 1 intervals as:

- 0.12% (1167 ppm) U3O8 over 3 m from 148.5 m in Hole 302;
- 0.16% (1616 ppm) U3O8 over 1 m from 172.5 m in Hole 225;

The maiden resource target area has been identified with a maiden JORC-compliant resource estimate is targeted for Q1 2013.