Thursday, August 7, 2008

Mining News-TEAL finalizes funding of additional US$35 million

TEAL Exploration & Mining Incorporated (TSX-“TL”) (JSE-“TEL”) (“TEAL” or the “Group”) has announced that a consortium of two lenders, Standard Chartered Bank and Standard Finance (Isle of Man) Limited, part of the Standard Bank Group, has made available a loan facility to the Group that totals US$85 million.

This unsecured US$85 million facility replaces the previous US$50 million loan. The facility is available from July 18, 2008 to August 31, 2009. The loan is guaranteed by African Rainbow Minerals Limited, TEAL’s major shareholder.

The facility will be used to settle the existing US$50 million loan, and to continue funding exploration work, general corporate expenditure and working capital requirements, inter alia:

TEAL’s Lupoto Copper Project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (“DRC”), where small scale mining is underway;

Continuing exploration drilling to expand the current resource base at the Lupoto Copper Project, which will ultimately be used in the feasibility study aimed at assessing a mining operation capable of producing around 40,000 tonnes a year of copper;

Finalizing the feasibility study on the Konkola North Copper Project in Zambia, where TEAL intends using an existing shaft and other infrastructure to produce 25,000 tonnes a year of copper;

Continuing the large exploration drilling campaign that is underway within Area “A” on the Konkola North property; and

Progressing various other exploration and evaluation projects on TEAL’s properties in the DRC, Namibia, Zambia and Mozambique.

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