The Project sponsor is Sama Resources, a listed (TSX-V: SME), Canadian-based junior mineral exploration company focused on Côte d’Ivoire. The stock is widely held and the major shareholders are: (i) Minmetals Resources (6%) and African Lion (4%) (IFC invested in Asian Lion Fund, which together with African Lion is managed by Lion, an Australian-based Fund). Management, directors and advisors hold approximately 22% of the Company.

The total project cost is estimated at 7 million Canadian dollars over the next 12 months. The majority of the funds will be used towards advancing the development of Samapleu in Côte d’Ivoire.

The proposed IFC investment consists of an initial equity investment of up to 1.3 million Canadian dollars. IFC will also receive warrants to subscribe to additional shares in the Company.

6.82 million (USD)

Product Line	IFC Investment (million USD)
Risk Management
Guarantee
Loan
Equity	6.82

* These investment figures are indicative

The Company’s principal exploration tenement, Samapleu, is located approximately 600 km northwest of Abidjan in Côte d’Ivoire. Sama’s secondary exploration target is Lola, a grassroots exploration project in Guinea, located approximately 1,000 km south east of Conakry near the Liberian border.

This is an early-stage, exploration project in a post-conflict, IDA country which is set to attract investment to develop its mineral resource sector. During exploration and prior to commercial resource discovery, the Project will have limited, immediate development impact. Nonetheless, even at its early stage, the Project provides local permanent employment to 35 people in an area with no formal employment opportunities and poverty levels of 80%. Should exploration lead to mine development and production, the developmental impacts will be notable. Key expected benefits will include taxes and other payments to government, the generation of direct employment and indirect jobs through linkages into the community as well as the improvement of local transportation and other infrastructure that will support local economic development. Successful resource discovery and development are also likely to attract more foreign investment into the sector.

Provider of Capital: IFC''s investment will provide much needed capital for further exploration and preparation of studies. This will take the Company closer to development and enhance the Company''s prospects for attracting future investors

Long-term shareholder: IFC''s role as a long term, strategic investor provides comfort to the Company and other investors that adequate funding would be available, for the development of a potential medium to large scale nickel mine and processing facility.

Environmental and Social Expertise: IFC will provide guidance to Sama Resources and help build its internal environmental and social management systems and ensure implementation for sustainable development. IFC''s involvement will help set benchmarks on environmental and social sustainability practices in Cote d''Ivoire mining sector.

This is a category B project according to IFC’s Environmental and Social Review Procedure because the Environmental, Health & Safety, and Social (“EHSS”) impacts of the project are limited, site specific and therefore manageable through implementation of appropriate mitigation measures.

IFC’s categorization of this project is based on the impacts of exploration activities, which currently have a small footprint. The drilling activity is focused on target areas identified through ground geophysics and in some cases, soil sampling.

The key environmental and social issues associated with the exploration drilling and trenching currently ongoing are: management of exploration activities (specifically rehabilitation of the drill roads, and drill sites, safe disposal of oils, proper solid waste management, water and effluent management at the exploration campsite); occupational health and safety; handling of hazardous materials (e.g. fuel); public safety and emergency preparedness & response; awareness and assessment of biodiversity issues associated with the proximity to the Mount Nimba UNESCO World Heritage Site for the Lola project; adequate consultation with the potentially affected communities to manage expectations vis-à-vis potential project benefits, programme and consistency of EHSS management across Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea.

To address the above identified issues and meet the requirements of IFC’s Performance Standards, Sama has committed to an Environmental and Social Action Plan (“ESAP”) covering its exploration activities, feasibility and potential future mine development. In addition, IFC will assist Sama in developing a comprehensive Health, Safety, Environment & Community (“HSEC”) Policy which will contain management plans for the exploration stage with commitments relating to any future mine development and implementing a comprehensive management system adequate for the exploration phase of the project.

Any IFC investment in potential future mine development undertaken by the Company will be assessed as a new project and its categorization would be determined after the necessary due diligence. Even without an additional investment, as long as IFC remains an equity holder, IFC would require any future mine development to follow an ESIA which will be undertaken as part of this investment in parallel to the BFS should an economic resource be defined. Sama will ensure that the ESIA demonstrates that the project is consistent with IFC Performance Standards and EHS Guidelines and will be publicly available and consulted upon in accordance with IFC’s requirements prior to the start of mine construction.

Governance is weak in the country, as captured by various governance metrics, including the World Bank Governance Indicators and Transparency International. However, given the early stage nature of the project and the limited benefits to be generated at this point, especially in terms of fiscal revenues, any potential governance risks to them are deemed limited. In addition, the current Government is actively engaged with the WBG to further improve governance and transparency of the sector, including a renewed commitment to successful EITI implementation. Côte d’Ivoire is expected to become EITI compliant in 2012. In addition, the client is bound by IFC’s requirement to make public any material payments made to the government