African Queen Mines Ltd. announced that the initial trenching and diamond drill assay results received to date indicate a zone of extensive, low-grade near-surface gold mineralization, at the company's Odundu Project in Southwest Kenya's Rongo Gold Fields. Drilling has shown this low grade gold mineralisation to be continuous over significant thicknesses with the best intersections obtained so far being 1.03g/t Au over 26.35 metres and 1.08g/t Au over 11.0 metres recorded in holes OD3 and OD4 respectively. As part of the company's 2012 exploration program, surface trenching and drilling was undertaken to examine the gold mineralization present within a major shear zone discovered through field reconnaissance work.

The shear has been better delineated through an airborne magnetic survey, and later ground geophysical study including both ground magnetics as well as a limited Induced Polarization (IP) program. Two other parallel shear zones have also been identified trending from the north-west to south-east on the property and these will be the subject of future exploration work. The surface trenching and drilling program was concentrated northwest and south-east of the Odundu artisanal pit covering a lateral distance of 900 meters and was aimed at examining near- surface mineralization.

The preliminary results of the trenching and drilling has confirmed consistent low grade gold mineralization over a lateral distance of 600m to a vertical depth of approximately 100 m. These preliminary results have shown low grade gold to be present within a structurally complex, laterally extensive shear zone. Exploration focus towards determining the extensions of this mineralization towards the northwest and southeast are now being developed. A total of 10 holes were drilled as part of the 2012 core drilling program which aggregated approximately 1996 metres.

The drilling was carried out on behalf of the company by Kenyan-based drilling contractor Akili Minerals Services Limited. Additionally, two major shear zones 2.8 km and 6.4 km south-west of Odundu and within the company's License are suspected of hosting gold mineralization. These structures were identified through remote sensing and aeromagnetic data interpretation.