African Copper Plc: Appointment of New Mining Contractor

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM -- (Marketwired - March 5, 2014) - African Copper Plc ("African Copper" or the "Company") (AIM:ACU) (BOTSWANA:AFRICAN COPPER), the AIM and Botswana-listed copper production and exploration company, is pleased to announce that its subsidiary Messina Copper Botswana (Pty) Ltd has awarded a new long-term contract to provide hard-rock open cast mining services to Diesel Power Mining (Pty) Ltd ("Diesel Power") a subsidiary of JSE listed Buildmax Limited ("Buildmax") in respect of two of African Copper's existing open pit copper mining operations ("the Contract").

The Contract commenced during February 2014 with a duration of 52 months, of which the first four months will be served at the Thakadu Mine and thereafter the remaining 48 months will be served at the Mowana Mine, located approximately 130 kilometres north-west of Francistown.

The Contract is denominated in Botswana Pula ("BWP") and is valued at approximately BWP1 billion (c.US$112.7m) over the contract period. The scope of the Contract is conventional open pit mining and drilling, using plant valued at BWP160 million (c.US$18.0 million), of which the majority will be sourced from the existing plant fleet of Buildmax.

Under the terms of the Contract, Diesel Power will deploy a highly qualified management team with extensive experience in Africa, and Buildmax will establish permanent support structures at the Mowana Mine in Botswana.

For further information please visit www.africancopper.com.


Notes to Editors:

African Copper is an AIM and Botswana-listed copper producer and exploration company, currently focused on Botswana. The Company's flagship project is the copper producing open pit Mowana Mine. African Copper also owns the rights to the adjacent Thakadu-Makala deposit. Both deposits are situated on the highly prospective Matsitama belt, located close to Botswana's second largest city, Francistown, in the north-eastern part of the country.


This announcement contains forward-looking information. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, that address activities, events or developments that the Company believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future including, without limitation, statements regarding the supply of sulphide ore from Thakadu and increasing throughput to raise production levels further towards the plant's capacity s are forward-looking information. This forward-looking information reflects the current expectations or beliefs of the Company based on information currently available to the Company. Forward-looking information is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results of the Company to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking information, and even if such actual results are realized or substantially realized, there can be no assurance that they will have the expected consequences to, or effects on the Company. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things, risks related to failure to convert estimated mineral resources to reserves, conclusions of economic evaluations, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, the possibility that actual circumstances will differ from the estimates and assumptions used in the current Thakadu mining plan, future prices of copper, unexpected increases in capital or operating costs, possible variations in mineral resources, grade or recovery rates, failure of equipment or processes to operate as anticipated, accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry and political risks arising from operating in Africa and changes in regulations affecting the Company. All forward-looking information speaks only as of the date hereof and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. Although the Company believes that its expectations reflected in the forward-looking information, as well as the assumptions inherent therein, are reasonable, forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and, accordingly, undue reliance should not be put on such information due to the inherent uncertainty therein.



CONTACT INFORMATION

African Copper Plc
Brad Kipp, Chief Financial Officer
+1 (416) 847 4866
bradk@africancopper.com
www.africancopper.com

Canaccord Genuity Limited (NOMAD and Broker)
Neil Elliot/Tarica Mpinga
+44 (0) 20 7523 8000

Tavistock Communications (PR and IR)
Simon Hudson/Nuala Gallagher
+44 (0) 20 7920 3150