Appointment of Chief Executive Officer

African Minerals Limited announces the appointment of Mr Keith Calder (50) as Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) of the Company, effective immediately, and as a director of the Company with effect from 3 August 2012. Mr Calder is a professional mining engineer, former CEO of TSX listed Western Coal Limited (WTN:TO) and spent 16 years with Rio Tinto in a variety of senior roles in emerging mining jurisdictions around the world.

Between 1993 and 2009 Keith held a number of senior executive and operational positions within the Rio Tinto group, latterly as Managing Director of global copper projects. He had responsibility for approximately $24Bn of capital projects (including engineering, construction and commissioning) and led a worldwide technical team of over 400 professionals in the US, Canada, Mongolia, Indonesia and Peru.

Keith’s key operational executive management positions at Rio Tinto were at Northparkes, Palabora, Las Cruces, Neves Corvo and Comsur, and he led a mining task force to realise a step change in orebody knowledge and strategic mine planning capability across the Group.

Most recently Keith held the position of CEO at Western Coal since December 2009, prior to its $3.4Bn takeover by Walter Energy (NYSE:WLT) in April 2011.  Whilst CEO of Western Coal he initiated a recapitalisation and expansion programme which saw production increase from 2.3Mtpa to 6.0Mtpa within one year, with further planned growth to 12Mtpa. This expansion saw the market capitalisation of Western Coal increase from $600m to $3.4Bn.

Executive Chairman, Frank Timis, commented on the appointment:

“On behalf of the Board I am pleased to welcome Keith to African Minerals. Keith has a Tier 1 mining pedigree, both strategically and operationally, with a proven track record of delivery.  Given Keith’s experience of large project development at Rio Tinto coupled with his recent success at Western Coal, he is the ideal candidate to lead the Group to the next phase of our development.

“As a result of Keith’s appointment, I am confident his leadership will allow me to take a more hands-off approach to the day to day affairs of the Company, and I therefore intend to transition to Non Executive Chairman from my current role as Executive Chairman.”

Keith Calder commented:

“I am delighted to be joining African Minerals at such an exciting time in the Company’s development.  The steps taken by AML to achieve production at Tonkolili in such a short timeframe have been nothing less than remarkable. I look forward to working with the Board over the coming years to successfully grow African Minerals into a more diversified mining group with a focus on West Africa.”

There is no information in relation to Mr Calder’s appointment required pursuant to Schedule 2 paragraph (g) of the AIM rules for Companies other than as follows:

• Mr Calder is currently a director of the following companies:

• EmberClear Corp.

In the last 5 years Mr Calder has been a director of the following companies:

• Walter Energy Inc.
• Western Coal Limited, and various subsidiaries of it
• Eagle Mining Company
• Rio Tinto Minera Peru Limitada

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