Keegan Continues

to Receives Excellent Results From Both Stepout and Infill Drilling at the Esaase Gold Project

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - 07/16/10) - Keegan Resources Inc. (TSX:KGN - News)(AMEX:KGN - News) ("Keegan") is pleased to announce new assay results from its Esaase drilling program in southwest Ghana. Keegan drilled significant intercepts in its 1) infill drill holes, 2) shallow step out drill holes north and along strike of the resource, and 3) step out drill holes down dip of the existing resource. Significant Intercepts from infill drilling include 98.1 meters of 1.43 g/t Au, for along strike step outs 20 meters of 1.58 g/t Au, and for down dip mineralization, 52.3 m of 3.01 g/t Au. Please see a collar location map and cross section at www.keeganresources.com.

Keegan currently has numerous holes completed with pending assays and is continuing to drill step out holes on the existing resource in preparation for an expanded resource estimate prior to completion of a pre-feasibility study. In other news, Keegan has completed several drill holes on its Asumura property and is awaiting assays.

President and CEO Maurice Tagami states, "These new assay results reveal the continued strength of the gold forming system at Esaase. The drilling is going very well and we are excited to now have two rigs focusing strictly on the exploration outside the existing resource."

Richard Haslinger, P. Eng. is the Qualified Person with respect to NI 43-101 at Esaase. RC samples were taken at one-meter intervals under dry drilling conditions by geologic and resource consultant Coffey Mining Inc. utilizing drilling and sampling techniques widely accepted in resource definition studies of other West African gold deposits. All reverse circulation drill samples are weighed on site. All samples are assayed using standard 50 gram fire assay with atomic absorption finish by ALS Chemex Labs in Kumasi, Ghana. QA/QC programs using internal and external standard samples, re-assays, and blanks indicate good accuracy and precision in a large majority of standards assayed. Repeatability in duplicate samples is generally within 10% variance. In instances where variance is greater than 10%, the assays from both samples are averaged. Intercepts were calculated to emphasize width rather than grade: a minimum of a 0.2 g/t cut off at beginning and end of the intercept and allowing for no more than eight consecutive samples (six meters) of less than 0.2 g/t Au. Mineralization strikes approximately 10 to 40 degrees east of north and dips 45 to 80 degrees to the west. Holes are drilled at 110 degrees azimuth and are inclined at 45 to 60 degrees, so true widths are estimated to be over 80% of the drilled widths. The techniques by which drill hole assays have been previously used in resource estimation at Esaase can be found in Keegan's most recent 43-101 technical report on www.sedar.com.

Table 1: Recent drill results from drilling from Keegan's Esaase Project. Only intercepts with grade widths of greater than 10 g/t meter Au are shown. Intercepts with grade-widths of approximately 30 g/t meter Au or higher are marked with (i). Widths are measured in actual drilled meters and grades are reported in g/t Au. All core holes are drilled at an azimuth of approximately 110 degrees at a dip of 45 degrees.

 

Hole_ID        From    To Width Grade       Hole_ID  From     To Width Grade
Resource Conversion Holes                   KEDD782   207    218    11  0.63
KEDD712(i)        0    28    28  1.21       KEDD782   366    372     6  0.78
including(i)      8     9     1 13.35    KEDD784(i)   210  231.3  21.3  1.49
KEDD712          76   115    39  0.74
including        92    93     1 10.85   Down Dip Extension
KEDD713         139 142.6   3.6  8.83    KEDD785(i)    93    119    26  1.17
including     142.4 142.6   0.4 135.5  including(i)   107    108     1 14.65
KEDD715          37    42     5  11.1       KEDD785   188    199    11   0.9
including        37    38     1  54.9    KEDD785(i)   249    321    72  1.88
KEDD716(i)       99 141.9  42.9  2.12  including(i)   302    303     1  75.2
including(i)  100.9   102   1.1  10.1       KEDD786   164    180    16  0.69
including(i)    106   107     1  26.6    KEDD786(i)   252  257.3   5.3   8.7
KEDD747         100   123    23  0.54  including(i)   255    256     1  41.5
KEDD748           0    18    18  0.87       KEDD786   344    361    16  1.82
KEDD748(i)       68   190   122  1.02       KEDD789 334.2    346  11.8  1.84
including(i)    104   106     2 16.85       KEDD789   402    410     8  1.18
KEDD755           0    12    12  0.86       KEDD813   217    257    40  0.52
KEDD755(i)      176 274.1  98.1  1.43       KEDD813   320  334.2  14.2  0.82
including(i)    212   213     1  41.8       KEDD813   386  406.9    20  0.73
and(i)        272.1 273.3   1.2  26.4    KEDD817(i)   271  323.3  52.3  3.01
KEDD758          78    94    16  0.55  including(i)   277  278.1   1.1  97.6
KEDD759          78    96    18  1.61  including(i) 321.1  322.3   1.2  10.9
KEDD759         178   190    12  0.89       KEDD818   151    195    43  0.52
KEDD759(i)      242   250     8  4.97       KEDD818   229    251    22  0.98
including(i)    243   244     1  37.4       KEDD818   310    327    16  1.35
KEDD760          36    46    10   1.4
KEDD760(i)       88   110    22  2.13   North Resource Extension
including(i)     93    94     1 16.85    KERC745(i)    88     93     5  6.49
including(i)     95    96     1 11.05  including(i)    91     92     1  24.3
KEDD781          64    81    16  0.65    KEDD746(i)    64     84    20  1.58
KEDD781(i)      125   131     6  8.68       KERC717    33     39     6  2.09
including(i)    126   128     2  25.6       KERC719     6     13     7  0.93
KEDD781         176   185     9  2.35       KERC719    20     28     8  0.62
including       177   178     1  15.2       KERC732    17     22     5   2.4
KEDD781(i)      266 276.8  10.6  3.45       KERC732    90    104    14   0.8
including(i)    266 267.1   1.1  32.2       KERC738    63     74    11  1.25
KEDD782       157.7   163   5.3   1.7       KERC744   103    108     5  2.32

About Keegan Resources

Keegan is a junior gold company offering investors the opportunity to share ownership in the rapid exploration and development of high quality pure gold assets. The Company is focused on its wholly owned flagship Esaase project (2.28 Moz indicated resources with an average grade of 1.2 g/t Au at a 0.4 g/t Au cutoff and 1.65 million ounces in an inferred category at an average grade of 1.2 g/t Au applying a 0.4 g/t Au cut-off for a total inferred and indicated resource of 3.93 Moz) as well as its Asumura gold project, both of which are located in Ghana, West Africa, a highly favorable and prospective jurisdiction. Managed by highly skilled and successful technical and financial professionals, Keegan is well financed with no debt. Keegan is also strongly committed to the highest standards for environmental management, social responsibility, and health and safety for its employees and neighboring communities. Keegan trades on the TSX and the NYSE AMEX under the symbol KGN. More information about Keegan is available at www.keeganresources.com.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors,

Shawn Wallace, Executive Chairman