Orezone Gold drilling boosts Bombore’s size, gold grades

Infill drilling at Bombore, the largest undeveloped gold project in Burkina Faso, has yielded positive results with grades about 65% higher than the resource model, Orezone Gold (ORE-T) reports.

Ron Little, president and chief executive of the company, believes that “if the trend continues, we can expect an increase in the size and grade of the oxide resources, with the potential to lower strip ratios and improve economics.”

The latest results from the $24- million, 170,000-metre drill program include 27 core holes (4,300 metres) and 204 reverse circulation holes (10,450 metres), mostly from the project’s Siga South area, where the last resource
estimate, published in October 2010, was based only on widely spaced RC holes.

Highlights of expansion core holes from Siga South include 10.5 metres of 1.17 grams gold in hole 166, 10.5 metres of 2.02 grams in hole 163 and 15 metres of 1.08 grams in hole 154.

Highlights of infill RC drilling include 25 metres of 1.91 grams in hole C1407, 17 metres of 2.09 grams in hole C1393 and 16 metres of 1.15 grams in hole C1430.

Orezone has completed 17,700 metres of core drilling and 26,500 metres of RC drilling, or 50% of the total it has planned for this year. Two more core drills will arrive at site in June for a total of five core rigs and one RC rig for the remainder of the drill program. A resource update is expected soon, and another update in the second quarter of 2012.

Bombore has indicated resources of 1.6 million oz. gold and inferred resources of 1.9 million oz. gold within Whittle pit shells. More than 80% of the resource occurs above a depth of 80 metres with an average drilling depth of 60 metres.

Bombore is 85 km from the capital, Ouagadougou. The project is next to a paved highway, and has access to power and water.

A preliminary economic assessment is expected soon, with a prefeasibility study before the end of 2011. If the prefeasibility is positive, the company says it will complete a full feasibility study in 2012 on a large-tonnage, open-pit carbon-in-leach operation.

At presstime, Orezone was trading at $4.21 per share. Over the last year it has traded between 70¢ (August 2010) and $5.26 (April 2011).