Nevsun Resources Ltd. (TSX:NSU)(NYSE Amex:NSU) -

At the request of Market Surveillance of the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC), on behalf of the Toronto Stock Exchange, the Company wishes to advise that it is not aware of any material undisclosed development that would cause the significant upward movement of the Company’s share price.

The Company’s Bisha Project continues to be on target for plant commissioning in late 2010. We refer you to other recent news releases for information about the Bisha Project.

NEVSUN RESOURCES LTD.

Cliff T. Davis

President & Chief Executive Officer

For further information, please contact:

Eritrea

In a recent Exploration+Processing Magazine editorial, Stacy Davidson describes Eritrea with its 620 miles of coastline along the Red Sea as a historic centre of attention for various foreign powers, including the Ottoman Empire, Egypt, British Empire and Italy.

Nevertheless, Eritrea received the most attention from its larger neighbour Ethiopia, causing 30 years of oppression from the early 1960s to 1991 during the Ethiopian reign over Eritrea.

Eritrea fought a long and bitter independence war against Ethiopia and soon after the struggle had to face the challenge of rebuilding most of its shattered infrastructure and economy to serve the people of a new nation. According to Davidson, it was around this time that a Canadian gold and base metal explorer by the name of Nevsun Resources Ltd. shifted its focus towards southern Africa.

Nevsun’s history dates back to its founding year in 1965 in Vancouver as a minor exploration entity working on small mining projects geographically limited to North America. Nevsun’s expansion to markets abroad began in 1993 when it successfully started to identify properties with significant potential in Africa. The Kubi project in Ghana, under an agreement with Anglogold Ashanti, and Tabakoto mine in Mali were Nevsun’s first overseas ventures in 1999 and 2004. Both properties were sold between 2007 and 2008 as Nevsun wanted to focus solely on Eritrea, according to Nevsun CEO Cliff Davis.

In 2003 Nevsun made a discovery at Eritrea’s Bisha property, and it soon become apparent the Nevusn and the government of Eritrea would have a mutual interest to develop the property. Nevsun says that Bisha will be the first mine operating since colonial times in Eritrea and acknowledges the commitment of Eritrea’s President Isaias Afewerki to develop a mining industry to pursue Eritrea’s economic rehabilitation. The government holds a 10 percent free participating interest in the Bisha Mine and a 30 percent paid participating interest through the Eritrean National Mining Corporation (ENAMCO), which is a state owned mining company.

Eritrea’s government’s objective is to have a clean well-developed mining industry and Nevsun has not experienced any kind of corruption or underhanded dealings, says the company. “We got into Africa in 1993 and in 1997 received an enquiry about investing in Eritrea,” Nevsun CEO Cliff Davis recalls. “By 1999, we were actively engaged in Eritrea and exited about the potential we saw there.” Today Nevsun is nearly finished with the construction of the Bisha Mine and expects it to be in operation by the end of 2010. The Bisha project is a large precious and base metal-rich volcanogenic massive sulphide deposit, and it is fully financed and permitted. Nevsun says the mine will be a low cost gold producer for the first two years of its 10-plus mine life time.

The company expects to return payable metals of: 1.06 million ounces gold, 9.4 million ounces silver, 734 million pounds copper, and 1 billion pound zinc. Nevsun highlights that drill hole intersections have encountered mineralization to a maximum tested depth of 1300 feet, but further resource potential exists beyond depth and from nearby discoveries within the company’s licensed areas. Further, it believes that the mine life of Bisha could be far more than 10 years based on evidence from potential resources deep inside the Bisha mine.

Nevsun’s CEO projects that the company will employ at least 350 local employees and 50 expats when Bisha will reach full operational capability. He ads that Nevsun is employing around 600 local people and 100 expats during the current construction phase and committed to train and develop locals due to a lack of skilled human resources in the country. Nevsun has developed three scenarios of economic estimates from the mine, based on three types of metal prices:

1. With low metal prices, the company projects a 20 percent internal rate of return, payback within 2.8 years and $426 million net cash for mine’s life.
2. With medium metal prices, the company projects a 45 percent rate of return, payback within 1.6 years and $1.1 billion net cash for mine’s life.
3. If metal prices are high, it plans with 63 percent internal rate of return, payback within 1 year and $1.75 billion net cash for mine’s life.

In addition Nevsun continues to work at the nearby Harena deposit, which is within its current mining licence, to define its potential as mill feed for the Bisha plant. There are also plans to drill at other potential targets on the property, along with continued prospecting, mapping, sampling and ground geographical surveys in order to identify new targets within its license.  However, right now the company is focused on getting its Bisha plant into production according to its CEO.

Bisha Update & Plant Commissioning Targets

Nevsun Resources Ltd. (TSX:NSU / NYSE Amex:NSU) is pleased to provide a brief update on the Bisha project and the first quarter results.

BISHA PROJECT UPDATE

The Bisha Project is positioned to be Eritrea’s first modern day mine, with production under the current mine plan to yield payable metals of 1.06M oz gold, 734M lb copper, 1B lb zinc and 9.4M oz silver. It benefits from the continued support of the local Eritrea Government and is fully financed. Mine construction continues on schedule, with the Bisha project now approximately 60% complete. During the course of Q1 2010, the following milestones were achieved:

• Financing completed by Nevsun;
• Ball and SAG mills assembled and set in place;
• Pre-strip mining commenced;
• Cost expenditure transpired virtually as planned. At March 31, 2010, approximately $175 million had been spent, ordered or arranged and the project remains on track to come within the targeted $260 million total cost.

Pictures of the construction progress are updated regularly and can be found on the Company web site – www.nevsun.com/properties/photo_gallery .

Targets for remainder of 2010:

Q2

• SAG and Ball mills fully installed;

Q3

• Completion of structural steel and plate-work;
• Completion of plant electrical and piping;
• Completion of pre-strip and ore stockpiling;

Q4

• Completion of tails management facility;
• Plant commissioning;
• First gold production.

The Company is still on target for the commissioning of the plant in Q4 2010 and all key senior operations personnel are in place for supervision, training and commissioning purposes. Installation of the SAG and ball grinding mills is ongoing and should be completed by the end of Q2. Furthermore, the construction of the tailings facility commenced in Q4 2009 and installation of the impermeable liner is ongoing and should be completed in Q4 2010.

QUARTERLY RESULTS

The Company’s end of quarter financial position includes a healthy $113 million cash position that, together with the financial contribution by the State of Eritrea, will carry the project through to positive cash flow in Q1 2011. The estimated Bisha Project cash flow under various metals price assumptions is included in the annual MD&A and posted on the Nevsun web site – www.nevsun.com/project/highlights .

During the first quarter the Company wrote off deferred finance costs of $10.7 million associated with previous project debt arrangements as a result of switching to an all equity approach to financing the Bisha construction. As noted in our press release on February 23, 2010, the decision to finance the project by equity instead of debt has significantly enhanced the estimated cash flow through the elimination of finance costs and debt repayment. The first quarter loss of $11.5 million compares to $1.3 million for the same period last year.

Complete details of the Q1 2010 financial statements and management’s discussion and analysis can be found on the Nevsun website at www.nevsun.com as well as on Sedar at www.sedar.com and EDGAR at http://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/webusers.htm.

Forward Looking Statements:

Forward Looking Statements: The above contains forward-looking statements concerning cash position, construction progress, reserves, mine planning and project economics. Forward-looking statements are frequently, but not always, identified by words such as “expects,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “intends,” “estimates,” “potential,” “possible” and similar expressions, or statements that events, conditions or results “will,” “may,” “could” or “should” occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements are statements about the future and are inherently uncertain, and actual achievements of the Company or other future events or conditions may differ materially from those reflected in the forward-looking statements due to a variety of risks, uncertainties and other factors, including, without limitation, those described in the Management Discussion and Analysis of the Company. The Company’s forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, expectations and opinions of management on the date the statements are made and the Company assumes no obligation to update such forward-looking statements in the future. For the reasons set forth above, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

NEVSUN RESOURCES LTD.

Cliff T. Davis

President & Chief Executive Officer

Nevsun Eritrea

Nevsun ownership interest in the Bisha Project

On October 26, 2007 the Company and the State-owned Eritrean National Mining Corporation (ENAMCO) entered into an agreement to increase the State’s participation in the Bisha project. ENAMCO agreed to purchase at fair value a 30% paid participating interest to add to its 10% free participating interest provided by Eritrean mining legislation, resulting in a total State participation of 40% (30% contributing; 10% free carried).

The final amount to be paid by the State will be determined by an independent valuator and will be based on the net present value of 30% of the project, as evaluated upon the first shipment of gold from the mine. As a first provisional payment, ENAMCO paid the Company $25,000,000 during Q1 2008.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

The Company’s cash at December 31, 2009 was $29.1 million (December 31, 2008 – $40.7 million).

In January 2008 the Company received $25 million related to the provisional payment on acquisition by ENAMCO of its contributing interest in Bisha. ENAMCO continues to fund its share of all costs of the Bisha project and advanced $21.9 million to Bisha during 2009. The advances incurred $1,413,850 of interest, which was capitalized to property, plant and equipment. The interest and advances will be repaid out of operating cash flow, are not callable and have no specified repayment terms.

In May 2008 the Company received $20 million from the sale of its Mali assets. In July 2008 the Company also collected $3 million from PMI Gold Corporation related to the 2007 sale of its Ghana assets.

In September 2009 the Company received a $20 million loan from ENAMCO. In October 2009 it then raised $30.1 million by way of a non-brokered private placement of 11,500,000 common shares.

From these cash resources the Company used $83.8 million in its operating and investing activities during 2009 (2008 – $45.1 million). The Company has spent $122.4 million on the Bisha capital project and based on current estimates, as at December 31, 2009 required approximately $137.6 million to complete the project.

Subsequent to December 31, 2009 the Company raised a further $111.5 million by way of a non-brokered private placement of 52,000,000 common shares. The Company is confident the funds from this private placement, together with its existing cash and the ongoing one-third contribution by ENAMCO to Bisha will be sufficient to see the Bisha project through to cash positive operations.

In July 2009 the Company’s subsidiary, Bisha Mining Share Company (BMSC) had arranged debt facilities totalling $235 million for the Bisha project. The debt package was a mix of senior and subordinated facilities from a lending group comprised of seven institutions from Europe and South Africa.

In February 2010 the Company changed its approach to funding the Bisha project to ensure the project continued on schedule. While Bisha had already completed project debt agreements with European and South African lenders, these debt facilities had not yet been drawn and it became apparent that access to the debt in the required time frame was uncertain. The Company and ENAMCO concluded that the debt facilities were unreliable and inconclusive for the Bisha project.

As a result of the change in approach to funding the Bisha project, during Q1 2010 the Company expensed approximately $8 million of costs related to securing the debt financing that at December 31, 2009 were treated as deferred finance costs and were included in property, plant and equipment.

Contractual Obligations

As of December 31, 2009 the Company had the following contractual obligations:

-

The Company also has an environmental bond to cover remediation liabilities for Bisha in the amount of $2,000,000 at a cost of 1% per annum.

The Company has not entered into any specialized financial agreements to minimize its commodity risk, investment risk or currency risk. There are no off-balance sheet arrangements, except for the purchase price adjustment on the disposition of the 30% contributing interest in Bisha, acquired by ENAMCO (the Eritrean State mining company). Refer to note 10(a) of the annual consolidated financial statements for a description of the purchase price adjustment with ENAMCO.

Also refer to note 4 of the annual consolidated financial statements for a description of the Company’s financial instruments and risk management.

Financial Report 2009: http://www.nevsun.com/docs/financials/1209_NSU_MD&A_Final.pdf

Bisha Mining Share Company is very pleased to announce that it has entered into metal sales contracts for its future gold ore and copper concentrate production at the Bisha Mine in Eritrea. Pricing for all metals will be fixed at spot rates at the time of delivery.

The gold will be refined in Switzerland and Canada by two major international companies while the copper concentrate will be shipped to major smelters in Europe and India.

Production is currently scheduled to commence during autumn of 2010. Gold production within the first two years is estimated at approximately 900,000 ounces of payable metal, followed by over 500,000,000 pounds of payable copper in years 3-5, plus an additional 1 billion pounds of payable zinc and 200,000,000 pounds of copper in years 5-10.

Eritrea Map

Nevsun Resources Ltd., (NSU-TSX/NYSE AMEX) has announced the financial closing of debt facilities totaling $235 million for its Bisha gold-silver-copper-zinc Project in Eritrea (the “Project”).  All amounts are expressed in United States dollars.

A debt package totaling $235 million has been arranged for Bisha Mining Share Company (“BMSC”) to complete its funding arrangements to develop the Project.  

The debt package is a mix of senior and subordinated loans from a lending group comprised of seven institutions (“Lenders”) from Europe and South Africa. 

The arrangements include an available cost over-run facility of $30 million that will be in addition to a contingency allowance of $32 million in the Project Cost Budget (“Budget”). The Project is now more than one third completed, and the forecast cost to complete remains on Budget.

CEO, Cliff Davis, stated “It is a tribute to the strength and quality of the Project and the support of the country that even during difficult financial markets we have managed to arrange a significant debt package to fully complete Eritrea’s first modern day major mining project.  

This accomplishment has been a collaborative effort between Nevsun and our partner, the Eritrean National Mining Corporation, our current and past staff and advisors and ultimately only made possible through the support of the governments of Eritrea, Germany and South Africa. We naturally also thank the Lenders for their contribution to make this happen and look forward to their continued support.”

Summary of Estimated Project Costs and Funding:

Pre production costs:

Historic property related costs      $29million (exploration, pre-development, etc)

Pre production project costs        220 million

Contingency allowance                   32 million

Cost overrun allowance                  30 million (management does not expect to incur)

Pre production finance costs         44 million (includes interest, fees and a small hedge per below)

                                                         $355 million

 Funded by:

 Nevsun and State of Eritrea      $120 million

 Senior debt                                      125 million

 Subordinated debt                           80 million

 Senior cost overrun                          30 million (management does not expect to utilize)

                                                          $355 million

Utilization of the debt facilities is expected in the next few weeks after certain conditions are met, including the registration of security, final letters from governments and final insurance arrangements.

In connection with the debt facilities the Company is required to establish a gold price protection programme in the unlikely event that the price of gold falls below $700/oz.  The programme is a purchase of gold puts of 200,000 ounces for the first two years of production.  This ensures the Project benefits from not only the floor price of $700/oz, but also 100% of all gold prices higher than $700/oz. 

The debt facilities are secured by BMSC and all of its assets, as well as by a completion guarantee from each of Nevsun and the Eritrean National Mining Corporation, to their respective contributing interests. 

Endeavour Financial is the Company’s project finance advisor.

At recent metal prices, the Project is expected to generate enough cash in the first two and a half years to repay all debt facilities, as well as fund the copper phase mine expansion. The projected operating cash costs for gold production are estimated to be less than $230/oz, including royalties. The after tax internal rate of return of the Project, using recent metal prices and including the cost of finance, is approximately 54%.

The mine is expected to start producing gold in Q3 2010. A recent update on the Project itself can be found in the Company’s Q1 MD&A and news release dated May 13, 2009. Photographs of progress can be found on the Nevsun web site at – http://www.nevsun.com/properties/photo_gallery/.

The Company looks forward to progressing Bisha through to production with the continued full support of the Eritrean Government.

Alem Kibreab, from the Eritrean Ministry of Energy and Mines told Reuters, that another eight companies have been awarded licences for gold mining in Eritrea.

The new entrants are named as Andiamo Exploration and London Africa from Britain, Land and Energy and Zhongchang Mining from China, The Mining Share joint venture from Lybia and Eritrea, South Boulder and Gippsland from Australia as well as Spice Minerals from India.

Further, he informed Reuters that Eritrea’s first mining project, which is the Bisha Mining venture will start producing gold around the third quarter of 2010.

Alem states, that Eritrea is well aware of the negative side effects a gold boom could cause for the country, referring to historic exploitation of Africa’s mining resources by short term focused decision making.Thus Eritrea would aim for a sustainable and long term approach in developing the mining sector, which is expected to have important multiplier effects for the development of other industrial areas in the country.

Eritrea’s gold ventures appear to be promising and first signs where the road might lead to, can be observed from Nevsun Resources and its Bisha project in the near future. In March 2009 capitaleritrea reported about Nevsun’s ownership structure as well as the financial result it made for 2008.

View Larger Map

Gold Mining Eritrea

 Sidney, Australia: Few days ago Nevsun Recourses published its Annual Result 2008 and confirmed that it is making progress in its gold mining efforts in Eritrea. Within days two other mining companies, namely Sub Sahara Resources and Chalice Gold Mines Ltd announced to merge in order to raise funds for Sub Sahara’s gold mining project in Eritrea.

 Both companies are listed on the Australian Stock Market and aim to invest in the Zara Project, which is a joint venture between the Government of Eritrea (31% stake) and Sub Sahara Resources (69% stake). Chalice Ltd is believed to have substantial cash resources of over 10 million Australian Dollars, which Sub Sahara requires in order to finance its Zara Gold Project in Eritrea.

Currently, there are six major international mining enterprises in joint ventures with the Eritrean Government. Four of them are Donia Resources & Co of China, Nevsun Resources and Sunridge Gold of Canada, Sub Sahara Resources of Australia.

The merger of both Sub Sahara and Chalice is subject to approval by the shareholders of Sub Sahara Resources. The move is especially important in the current economical situation, with banks not willing or able to provide substantial cash due to the financial crisis.

According to Reuters  the President of Eritrea has reshuffled the cabinet ministers for energy and environment in a move to address the increasing interest of foreign investors in Eritrea’s mineral resources.

So far the western region of Eritrea has been promising in the exploration of gold with more than 2 million ounces of gold recovered until now.

nevsun gold eritrea

eritrea project

Nevsun has a joint venture with the government of Eritrea to explore gold, copper and zinc under a project called Bisha, which is estimated to contain 27 million tonnes of ore consisting out of 1 million ounces of gold, 800 million lb of copper as well as 1 billion lb of zinc. The project has so far raised US$250 million for mining infrastructure from the Eritrean government, which holds a 40% stake and Nevsun Resources, which holds a 60% of the shares.

Bisha has not laid out, when it is expecting to turnover the business and make a profit. Nevsun Recourses is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange under the Symbol NSU. Information about the financial result can be obtained from: Annual Report Nevsun Resources