East Africa Metals Reports on Metallurgical Testwork for the Terakimti Gold Project, Ethiopia

VANCOUVER, BC--(Marketwired - June 22, 2016) - East Africa Metals Inc. (TSX VENTURE: EAM) ("East Africa" or the "Company") is pleased to report the initial results of ongoing independent metallurgical testwork for the Terakimti Gold Project in Ethiopia. The initial results are positive and support Management's view that industry standard heap leaching technology will be appropriate for the extraction of gold and silver at Terakimti.

Testwork Program Summary

The objectives of this program are to test the amenability of the Terakimti near surface oxide material to extraction of gold and silver utilizing industry standard heap leaching or agitated leaching technology, and to determine parameters for preliminary process design.

The key results of the testwork completed to date are as follows:

• gold extractions averaged 75.3% in simulated heap leach tests on samples crushed to 100% passing 16mm;
• gold extractions averaged 75.5% and 78.2% respectively for agitated leach tests on samples passing 80% minus 106 microns and 80% passing 75 microns;
• the oxide material achieves satisfactory solution percolation rates with moderate agglomeration; and,
• the oxide deposit has relatively soft rock.

Sample Collection

In November of 2015 East Africa Metals completed a dedicated metallurgical drilling program at Terakimti to collect samples strictly for metallurgical testwork. The six holes were completed along the strike of the deposit with each hole drilled through the entire depth of the oxide zone. The drill holes were located to collect samples representative of the overall oxide zone and of the six mineralized lithologies identified within the oxide zone.

The cores from each hole were logged, weighed and photographed at the Terakimti site. The complete, whole core from each hole was packaged, sealed and prepared for transport to the SGS Mineral Laboratory in Johannesburg, South Africa. The core drilling, logging and preparation for transport was performed under the supervision of Steve Gardoll, East Africa's geologist at Terakimti and Jeff Heidema, P.Geo., East Africa's Vice President of Exploration.

Simulated Leach Tests

A series of simulated heap leach tests were performed as a first step to assess if the Terakimti oxide deposit may be amenable to heap leach extraction. Three separate tests were performed on composite samples at material crushed to particle sizes of 80 percent minus 6 mm, 11 mm and 16 mm. The gold extractions were 66.9%, 72.0% and 72.2% respectively for these tests with an average of 70.4%. The bulk of the gold extracted within 24 hours.