Bissa Hill resource near 150,000 oz. (October 13, 2004)

An independent resource calculation for Jilbey Gold (JLB-V) has outlined a resource in two zones at the Bissa Hill gold deposit in east-central Burkina Faso.

Consulting firm SRK Consulting calculated a measured and indicated resource of 1.4 million tonnes grading 3.3 grams gold per tonne on the southern and northern zones of the Bissa Hill gold deposit. Another 106,000 tonnes grading 2.9 grams was classed as an inferred resource.

The cutoff grade was 0.5 grams per tonne, and mineralized zones had to be 5-metre blocks at a minimum. High assays were cut to 20 grams per tonne.

The two zones occupy a 900-metre-long section of the Sabce Shear Zone, a northeast-striking structure that has been traced for about 30 km. The Central zone, a 140-metre mineralized segment of the shear zone that has seen only limited drilling, was not included in the resource estimate, and more drilling on the area has been recommended.

Jilbey also calculated an in-house resource estimate using a 2-gram-per-tonne cutoff grade in order to see if a smaller higher-grade deposit might have better economics. That resource did include some parts of the Central zone.

The higher-grade resource amounted to 480,000 tonnes grading 5.6 grams gold per tonne, classified as measured and indicated. A 150,000-tonne inferred resource in areas with sparse drilling graded an average 5.4 grams per tonne.

Part of the economic analysis on the Bissa Hill deposit will include an examination of shipping Bissa ore to the Taparko gold project operated by High River Gold Mines (HRG-T), about 125 km northeast of Bissa.