Nyota Minerals Limited, the gold exploration and development company in East Africa is pleased to announce a conditional placing of 161,000,000 new ordinary shares of the Company to raise approximately £9.66 million (before expenses). Under the Placing, 146,720,000 Ordinary Shares will be issued to UK investors at £0.06 per Ordinary Share and the remaining 14,280,000 Ordinary Shares will be issued to Australian investors at A$0.089 per Ordinary Share. The Placing is conditional on the passing of certain resolutions by the Company's shareholders at a general meeting to be held on 7 March 2012.

The Placing has been supported by new and existing shareholders including Centamin plc ("Centamin"). Centamin is an Arabian-Nubian Shield focused gold mining company whose flagship project is the Sukari Gold Mine, located in the eastern desert of Egypt. Centamin has subscribed for 67,000,000 new Ordinary Shares, and following the Placing becoming unconditional in all respects will own 90,000,000 Ordinary Shares, equalling 14.08% of the enlarged share capital. Centamin was previously the holder of 23,000,000 shares via its wholly owned subsidiary North African Resources NL.  These shares were purchased on market.

The Placing has been undertaken to allow Nyota to:

• maintain momentum with exploration drilling of its Northern Block exploration properties;
• enable Nyota to progress the Tulu Kapi project after completion of the Definitive Feasibility Study ('DFS') but before project finance; and
• provide corporate working capital beyond June 2012, allowing for steady progression once the DFS is completed.

Following the Placing, the number of Ordinary Shares in issue will be 639,073,263.

Nyota CEO Richard Chase commented "We are delighted with the response to the capital raising, especially from key institutional shareholders.  The backing of an industry peer is encouraging, both for the prospects for Tulu Kapi and wider exploration within our Ethiopian assets and we greatly look forward to Centamin's ongoing support of our efforts in Ethiopia.

"Although the market remains relatively untested for fundraisings in 2012, there are signs that many exploration companies intend to raise finance in the next four months and the Board of Nyota felt it essential that we ensure adequate working capital to maintain our focus on our objectives beyond the end of the current financial year."

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