Mr. Andrew Smith reports

EAST AFRICA METALS QUALIFIES EXPLORATION UPSIDE RELATING TO TERAKIMTI, MATO BULA, AND DA TAMBUK PROJECTS

East Africa Metals Inc. has provided an update that the company will continue to explore highly prospective areas in the immediate vicinity of the known Terakimti gold, Mato Bula gold-copper and Da Tambuk gold deposit areas, and below outlines its exploration strategy for actively assessing the areas through further targeted and staged exploration. This work will be concurrent with continuing development review and assessment at Terakimti, Mato Bula and Da Tambuk (see positive preliminary economic assessment study (PEA) news release dated April 30, 2018) in the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. The full undertaking of this exploration will remain dependent upon additional financing being completed.

The company has maintained a steady multiproject advancement strategy over years of exploration, building value by drilling out key areas of mineralization to establish core base assets. The release of positive PEA results for the three close spatially related projects listed above now provides a foothold for working to potentially improve and expand resources on the projects through additional systematic exploration. Priority targets include:

Adyabo property

Mato Bula and Da Tambuk

Metallurgical testwork is currently being co-ordinated at Blue Coast Metallurgy Ltd. in British Columbia, in order to facilitate a resource update primarily incorporating the 2017 diamond drill program at Mato Bula.

Both Mato Bula and Da Tambuk lie along a geologically defined trend (the Mato Bula trend) characterized by anomalous base and precious metal soil values, and prospective alteration similar to that in the deposit areas. Additional work warranted to potentially locate additional mineralization includes:

• Halima Hill IP -- This represents a compelling target as a large, open (to depth and southward) induced polarization chargeability anomaly extending laterally 500 metres south beyond the known Mato Bula mineralization. The currently defined copper/gold mineralization increases in silver and zinc content locally in the south region of the resource. Being an open IP target, the feature requires drill qualification and has potential, with mineralization identification, to represent a significant spatial increase to the known mineralized footprint. A key intersection in this area includes 24.50 metres grading 0.61 gram per tonne gold, 1.67 per cent copper, 8.0 grams per tonne silver and 0.96 per cent zinc, from 204.30 metres (press release dated Jan. 15, 2015).
• Mato Bula Central -- Results from the 2017 infill drilling program identified areas of potential high-grade mineralization for stepout drilling to depth in the central area of Mato Bula.
• Silica Hill -- Resource mineralization remains open to depth.
• Silica Hill North -- Interpretation of geology and mineralization has been revised and additional drill targets have been identified with the objective to build upon an initial intersection of 22.91 metres at 14.34 grams per tonne gold including 8.50 metres at 36.92 grams per tonne gold, from 101.09 metres drill depth (press release dated Jan. 15, 2015).
• Mato Bula North -- A separate copper-enriched area of the existing resource remains open laterally and to depth and requires further delineation drilling.
• Regional IP survey -- The goal is to delineate additional targets to depth along the Mato Bula trend.
• Da Tambuk Silica Ridge -- Two target areas of artisanal workings, silica alteration and anomalous multielement soil geochemistry remain to be trenched and drill tested.
• Da Tambuk deposit -- Infill and extension drilling is required (deposit currently open to depth and south).

Harvest property

Terakimti

The company has recently released positive PEA results for the Terakimti gold heap leach project (news release April 30, 2018), which includes the oxide cap portion of the overall Terakimti VMS (volcanogenic massive sulphide) deposit. Additional work warranted here includes:

• Supergene -- high-grade copper mineralization delineation drilling;
• Primary -- VMS mineralization delineation drilling;
• Downhole/deep EM -- to potentially identify additional targets at depth.

Terakimti VMS trend, VTEM09

The company has identified a corridor of anomalous surface geochemistry between the Terakimti deposit and the VTEM09 prospect (a six-kilometre separation). The VTEM09 prospect has yielded a number of precious metal-rich VMS-related intersections, including 24.06 metres grading 1.88 per cent copper, 3.08 grams per tonne gold, 66.4 grams per tonne silver, and 2.54 per cent zinc, from 35.84 m drill depth (diamond drill hole TVD009 -- press release dated March 27, 2017):

• VTEM09 -- metallurgical work, potential resource work, potential additional diamond drilling;
• Deep EM testing -- to test the corridor between Terakimti and VTEM09 for potential additional targets.

Mayshehagne VMS trend

A separate VMS trend centres on the Mayshehagne prospect, located three kilometres south of Terakimti. Precious metal enriched copper-zinc mineralization has been identified at this prospect, including 21.19 metres grading 4.32 per cent copper, 1.04 grams per tonne gold, 35.9 grams per tonne silver and 6.98 per cent zinc, from 36.58 m drill depth (diamond drill hole HD011 -- press release dated March 27, 2017):

• Mayshehagne -- metallurgical work, potential resource work, potential additional diamond drilling;
• Deep EM testing -- to test the Mayshehagne trend area for potential additional targets.

Additional project information

Mato Bula, Terakimti and Da Tambuk are located within 10 kilometres of existing paved highways and the national power grid, and approximately 35 km from the town of Shire, which has an airport and extensive services. The Mato Bula and Da Tambuk projects are located five km apart and offer the opportunity to share access road and power line construction costs. The Terakimti gold project is approximately 15 km from Mato Bula and Da Tambuk.

Mining licences

East Africa, through its Ethiopian subsidiary company Harvest Mining PLC, has received a mining licence for the Terakimti gold heap leach project which provides authorization for the company to construct and operate a heap leaching operation (see news release dated Dec. 7, 2017). In addition, and as previously announced, the company through its Ethiopian subsidiary company Tigray Resources Inc. PLC, submitted mining licence applications for the Mato Bula and Da Tambuk projects which are currently in the formal review process by the Ethiopian Ministry of Mines, Petroleum and Natural Gas (see news release dated Dec. 13, 2017).

Management discussion

The company believes the work and advancement on the projects completed to date display both the significant mineral potential of this area of the Arabian Nubian shield, and also the accommodative Ethiopian regulatory environment that is facilitating the progress of the projects.

"East Africa's management has established objectives to advance the company's Ethiopia assets through exploration and development agendas," stated Andrew Lee Smith, chief executive officer of East Africa Metals. "The exploration objectives described in this release are aimed to increase and upgrade the resource along strike, to depth and through definition drilling, while the development agenda described in the Terakimti, Da Tambuk and Mato Bula preliminary economic assessments (see press release April 30, 2018) will, once successfully executed, continue to derisk the project as the company works towards its objective to establish operations and cash flow."

Quality control

The planning, execution and monitoring of East Africa's drilling and quality control programs at the Harvest and Adyabo projects have been conducted under the supervision of Jeff Heidema, PGeo, East Africa's vice-president, exploration. Mr. Heidema is a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, and has reviewed and approved the geological information contained in this news release. Diamond drilling was co-ordinated by East Africa's contract geologists who also managed the preparation, logging and sampling of core and rock samples, in addition to carrying out bulk density measurements. During sampling, quality control standards and blanks were introduced at predetermined intervals to monitor laboratory performance. A system of field, reject and pulp sample duplicates was also incorporated, as were specific programs of reassaying and umpire lab assaying to both monitor laboratory performance and also characterize potential mineralization, all consistent with industry best practice.

Drill core samples have undergone preliminary preparation at the Bureau Veritas Mineral Laboratories facility in Ankara, Turkey, and are crushed to 80 per cent passing 10 mesh, and pulverized to 85 per cent passing 200 mesh (PRP70-1KG package). Analyses are conducted at both the Turkey facility and the Bureau Veritas Mineral Laboratories in Vancouver, Canada, with diamond drill core analyses utilizing aqua regia digestion and ICP-ES (inductively coupled plasma emission spectroscopy) for base metal and silver analyses (AQ370 package), and infill sample program utilizing aqua regia digestion and ICP-MS/ICP-ES (inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry/inductively coupled plasma emission spectrscopy) (AQ270 package) for base metal and silver analyses. Gold analyses are conducted at the Turkey Bureau Veritas Mineral Laboratories facility via fire assay fusion with AA (atomic absorption) finish, and gravimetric analyses are completed for overlimit samples (FA430, FA530-Au packages).

Information recorded from diamond drill core assaying was integrated using industry-standard data management software (Maxwell Datashed).

Mr. Heidema, a qualified person under the definitions of National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the contents of this news release.

We seek Safe Harbor.