GOLD AND PRECIOUS METALS — Banro resumes drilling at Twangiza in Congo

Having replenished its treasury with the proceeds of a warrant offering, Banro Resource (bnrs-c) is embarking on a second phase of diamond drilling at its Twangiza gold project in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Kivu province.

The Toronto-based junior recently sold 1.25 million warrants at $7 each, thereby increasing its working capital to more than $10 million. A portion of the funds will be used to drill 9,200 metres of infill and stepout drilling at the Twangiza property in order to complete a prefeasibility study.

Drilling will focus on a 800-metre zone of mineralization estimated to host 104.6 million tonnes grading 2.12 grams gold per tonne, equivalent to 7.1 million contained ounces. The calculation, made earlier this year, was based on 4,600 metres of drilling and 17,374 historical samples. A cutoff grade of 1 gram gold was used.

The company has since completed the final seven holes of the first phase of its drill program. Hole 98-18 intersected the widest interval; it hit 407.9 metres (58.5-466.4 metres) averaging 1.28 grams gold. The lowermost 104.4 metres of that interval graded 2.01 grams, whereas higher-up intervals of 9 and 15 metres graded 3.46 grams and 3.02 grams, respectively.

The highest grades were found in hole 98-13, which intersected 227.9 metres (142.7-370.6 metres) averaging 1.77 grams, within which 57.8 metres graded 2.5 grams and 39 metres graded 3.7 grams.

Other highlights from the latest holes include:

* 17 metres (15-32 metres) of 1.37 grams and 139 metres (65-204 metres) of 1.26 grams in hole 98-14;

* 336 metres (186-552 metres) of 1.17 grams in hole 98-15;

* 14.8 metres (16.5-21 metres) of 1.67 grams and 57.4 metres (176-233.4 metres) of 1.02 grams in hole 98-16; and

* 307 metres (105-412 metres) of 1.30 grams in hole 98-19.

Most of the intersections reported above included higher-grade subintervals.

All of the holes were drilled through the deposit’s fold axis, to depths of between 460 and 601 metres.

Banro plans to allocate a portion of its working capital to its Namoya property, situated 180 km south of Twangiza. The company will build an exploration camp at Namoya and begin a first phase of exploration to confirm historical work. Based on old data, the company estimates the property to hold a resource of 12.57 million tonnes grading 6.19 grams gold.