Semafo tables Wona resource evaluation (October 29, 2001)

Montreal-based Semafo (SMF-T) has estimated indicated resources at the newly discovered Wona zone on the Mana gold property in Burkina Faso, West Africa, at 3.5 million tonnes grading 2.38 grams gold per tonne, based on a cutoff grade of 0.5 gram gold.

Of the total resource, 1.8 million tonnes of oxide ore run 2.45 grams gold and 1.7 million tonnes of sulphide ore average 2.31 grams gold.

Wona was discovered after Semafo drilled 18 holes late last year to follow up on trenching completed last summer. The trenching targeted stream-sediment anomalies.

To date, Semafo has opened 22 trenches and drilled 2,851 metres in 35 reverse-circulation (RC) holes. Nineteen trenches cut into the main TW-4 structure on 100-to-200-metre centres, and RC drilling has identified the TW-4 structure over a strike length of 2 km. The oxide resource has an average depth of 60 metres.

Better results from trenching include 9 metres averaging 6.3 grams and 29 metres averaging 3.14 grams. Among recent RC holes, WRC-23 intersected 22 metres grading 2.73 grams gold per tonne, WRC-29 cut 14 metres of 4.21 grams, and WRC-30 encountered 24 metres running 2.9 grams.

Mineralization at Wona appears to be hosted by three structures in highly deformed felsic tuffs. Locally, the rocks are silicified and quartz-veined.

Preliminary “bottle-roll” cyanidation tests performed on RC cuttings from Wona returned an average recovery of 90% for oxide material above 50 metres.

The Wona zone is 7 km north of the Nyafe deposit, where 1 million tonnes grading 8.5 grams gold have been outlined. Both zones remain open in all directions. Semafo plans to look for a northeastern strike extension to the structure on the adjoining Kona concession, which it acquired recently.

Elsewhere, an induced-polarization (IP) survey has detected anomalies extending from Wona, as well as a separate anomaly to the east. Seven IP anomalies in total were identified.

Three trenches that tested a conductive corridor 200 metres east of the TW-4 structure failed to cut significant mineralization. Eighteen sub-vertical rotary-air-blast holes returned similar results. The company says the holes may not have been drilled far enough to hit the targets.