Orezone's Bombor� Gold Project has
Substantial Increase in Size and Grade
Total
gold ounces contained in pit shells up 59% with average grade up 48%
October 19,
2010- Orezone
Gold Corporation (
ORE: TSX ) is
pleased to announce that gold mineral resources at its 100% owned Bombor�
Gold Deposit located in Burkina Faso, West Africa have substantially increased
to 60.9 million tonnes of indicated
mineral resources at a grade of 0.81g/t for 1.6 million oz of gold plus 60.6
million tonnes of inferred mineral resources at a grade of 0.96g/t for 1.9
million oz. "Bombor�
is now the largest undeveloped gold deposit in Burkina
Faso and it remains open at depth and along
strike" said Ron Little
President and CEO. "Orezone
will immediately commence an aggressive infill and expansion drill program to
further expand mineral resources in conjunction with completing a preliminary
economic assessment."
The mineral resource update includes this year's
42,456m (619 holes) infill and expansion reverse circulation ("RC")
drill program that was designed to upgrade and test the limits of the surface
oxide resource. The program was successful and also served to increase the
continuity and grade of the fresh rock resource below. This unexpected and
material change to the total mineral resource warrants a change in the
Company's approach to also consider developing the project as a carbon in leach
("CIL") operation. The deposit is still open on surface where more
oxide material is targeted. However, the potential to significantly increase
the fresh rock mineral resources at a grade of 1.0g/t or higher in the top 200m
from surface is now an equally high priority. The Company's board of directors
has approved a short term drilling budget of $2.5M to commence core drilling
and to secure additional drilling equipment. As part of this budget, several kilometres
of new surface targets will also receive RC drilling. Orezone intends to
continue with its plan of completing a preliminary economic assessment of the
project by the first quarter 2011. The assessment will now include both heap
leach and CIL scenarios.
The mineral
resources were estimated by the Company and audited by SRK Consulting (Canada)
Inc. ("SRK") (Table 1). The mineral resources are constrained within
4.3km� of conceptual optimized open pit shells (11km long and up to 1km wide)
with an estimated stripping ratio of 2.2:1. Approximately 80% of the total
resource occurs in the top 80m, but pit shells can reach a depth of 200m.
Resources are totally open at depth and 90% of the drilling to date is within
60m of the surface. The pit shells are based on a US$1,025 gold price, relevant
cost estimates for mining, processing, G&A, and detailed metallurgical
results (reported December 2009) to estimate recoveries for a CIL plant
scenario. The mineral resource model is based on a total of 120,605m of RC and
core drilling data compiled up to August 2010. The project is situated beside
the main highway just 85km east of the capital city of Ouagadougou.
Infrastructure in the flat lying area is excellent with a low population
density and access to power and water.
"With
35,000 ounces of gold per vertical metre in the top 60m of the deposit, there
remains excellent potential to significantly increase resources at depth as we
extend the definition drilling to a depth of 120m," said Pascal
Marquis, V.P. Exploration for Orezone. "We have still not exhausted the
surface oxide targets or the potential of lateral extensions to our current
open pit shells which will also receive more drilling."
Table 1 2010
Audited Mineral Resource Statement* for the Bombor�
deposit, Burkina Faso,
West Africa,
SRK Consulting,
October 15, 2010, CIL Processing Scenario
|
|
Indicated Mineral Resource
|
Inferred Mineral
Resource
|
Cut-off
(g/t)
|
Weathering
Profile
|
Tonnage
(Mt)
|
Grade
(g/t)
|
Gold (Moz)
|
Tonnage
(Mt)
|
Grade (g/t)
|
Gold
(Moz)
|
0.30
|
Oxide
|
34.0
|
0.67
|
0.73
|
25.0
|
0.59
|
0.48
|
0.35
|
Transition
|
11.2
|
0.84
|
0.30
|
5.4
|
0.88
|
0.15
|
0.50
|
Fresh
|
15.7
|
1.10
|
0.55
|
30.3
|
1.28
|
1.24
|
|
TOTAL
|
60.9
|
0.81
|
1.59
|
60.6
|
0.96
|
1.87
|
*� Mineral
Resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic
viability. All figures have been rounded to reflect the relative accuracy of
the estimates. The cut-off grades are based on a gold price of US$1,025 per
ounce with CIL processing recoveries of 93% for oxide, 92% for transitional
and 78% for fresh material. Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resources are all
reported within conceptual optimized open pit shells. Unlike 2008, those resource blocks that occur outside the pits shells
are not included in this resource estimate. Mt= million metric tonnes.
Moz=
million troy ounces; g/t= grams gold per tonne.
|
Table 2 2008
Audited Mineral Resource Statement* for the Bombor�
deposit, Burkina Faso, West Africa,
SRK Consulting,
September 20, 2008, Heap Leach Processing Scenario
|
|
Indicated Mineral Resource
|
Inferred 1 Mineral
Resource
|
Inferred 2 Mineral
Resource
|
Cut-off
(g/t)
|
Weathering
Profile
|
Tonnage
(Mt)
|
Grade
(g/t)
|
Gold (Moz)
|
Tonnage
(Mt)
|
Grade (g/t)
|
Gold
(Moz)
|
Tonnage
(Mt)
|
Grade
(g/t)
|
Gold
(Moz)
|
0.24
|
Oxide
|
30.6
|
0.53
|
0.52
|
32.0
|
0.46
|
0.48
|
2.3
|
0.33
|
0.02
|
0.25
|
Transition
|
13.0
|
0.56
|
0.23
|
15.3
|
0.50
|
0.25
|
5.1
|
0.34
|
0.05
|
0.52
|
Fresh
|
5.7
|
0.93
|
0.17
|
16.8
|
0.96
|
0.52
|
20.3
|
0.71
|
0.46
|
|
TOTAL
|
49.4
|
0.59
|
0.93
|
64.1
|
0.61
|
1.24
|
27.7
|
0.61
|
0.54
|
* Mineral
Resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic
viability. All figures have been rounded to reflect the relative accuracy of
the estimates. The cut-off grades are based on a gold price of US$800 per
ounce with heap leach processing recoveries of 85% for oxide, 81% for
transitional and 65% for fresh material. Indicated and Inferred 1 Mineral
Resources are reported within conceptual optimized open pit shells, while
Inferred 2 Mineral Resources are all remaining resource blocks located
outside the pit shell. Mt= million metric tonnes. Moz=
million troy ounces; g/t= grams gold per tonne
|
Several
factors account for the difference between the 2010 and 2008 mineral resource
estimates as follows:
1) All 2010 drill samples
were subjected to a LeachwellTM
analysis where results higher than 0.2g/t were complemented with a fire assay
of the leach residue. Many LeachwellTM
samples from the previous 2008 estimate did not include leach residue assays
for any sample with a leach grade below 0.5 g/t. The new expanded LeachWellTM
residue assay database has been used to build a leach model that has been used
to estimate the grade of the LeachWellTM
residues for the samples that were missing this analysis, based on well defined
leach curves for each of the major lithological units. The net effect was an
increase of about 4% in the grade as the mineral resource is now more
representative of the in-situ grade;
2) The drilling defined
several higher grade zones (> 0.5 g/t) within the large lower grade envelop
of the deposit. These zones were modeled separately and as a result have
contributed significantly to higher grades. In the 2008 estimate, only low
grade envelopes were used, with a top cut of 4 g/t for all of the composited
assays. In 2010, the composite grades were capped at 1.44, 4.05 and 8.07g/t in
the low grade, laterite
and high grade zones, respectively.
3) Ordinary kriging
was used versus inverse distance squared kriging in the 2008
estimate.
4) A higher gold price of
US$1,025 was used in this estimate versus US$800 in 2008.
Drilling on the Bombor� property and the mineral resource
estimates were supervised by Pascal Marquis,
Ph.D., P. Geo., Vice President and Qualified Person for Orezone as defined by
National Instrument 43-101 and who has reviewed and approved the technical
information in this release. The mineral resource estimates were prepared by Orezone
and audited by Dorota
El-Rassi,
P.Eng.
and
Glen Cole, P.Geo.
of
SRK who are Independent Qualified Persons as defined by National Instrument
43-101. Orezone
holds a 100% operating interest in the project while the government of Burkina
Faso will receive a 3% net
smelter royalty and a 10% non-participating (carried) interest should the
project go into production.
The Company
also announces that Mr. Joseph McCoy has been appointed Chief Financial
Officer. Joe holds an MBA and Bachelor of Commerce degree from Concordia
University and a project Management diploma from McGill University and brings
over 25 years of financial and operational experience to Orezone. Joe replaces
Mr. Sean Homuth
who has departed to pursue other opportunities. Orezone would like to
thank Sean for his dedication and contributions during his tenure.
Orezone is a gold
exploration and development company with significant gold resources in Burkina
Faso and more than 15 years of operating experience in West Africa, one of the
world's fastest growing gold producing regions. Orezone is focused on
developing Bombore,
the second largest gold deposit in the country and its pipeline of advanced
gold projects. Orezone's
mission is to create wealth by discovering and developing gold resources in an
efficient and responsible manner for the benefit of its shareholders and other
stakeholders.
Orezone
will hold a conference call Wednesday October 20, 2010 at 11:00hr EST to
discuss the Bombor�
Resource Update. Ron Little
and Pascal Marquis will be present for the call. To participate, please call
1-800-403-7802 and log on to https://cc.callinfo.com/r/19ilrrkf56aoa
to view the presentation in real-time. The presentation will conclude with a
Q&A session.
For further information please contact Orezone at (613)
241-3699 or Toll Free: (888) 673-0663
Ron Little, CEO, info@orezone.com��������� Pascal Marquis, V.P. Exploration, pmarquis@orezone.com
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS AND FORWARD-LOOKING
INFORMATION: This news release contains certain "forward-looking
statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws.
Forward-looking statements and forward-looking information are frequently
characterized by words such as "plan," "expect,"
"project," "intend," "believe,"
"anticipate", "estimate" and other similar words, or
statements that certain events or conditions "may" or
"will" occur.
FORWARD-LOOKING
STATEMENTS are based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date
the statements are made, and are subject to a variety of risks and
uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to
differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. These
factors include the inherent risks involved in the exploration and development
of mineral properties, the uncertainties involved in interpreting drilling
results and other geological data, fluctuating metal prices, the possibility of
project cost overruns or unanticipated costs and expenses, uncertainties
relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future and
other factors. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking
statements if circumstances or management's estimates or opinions should
change. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking
statements.
Readers are advised
that National Instrument 43-101 of the Canadian Securities Administrators
requires that each category of mineral reserves and mineral resources be
reported separately. Readers should refer to the annual information form
of Orezone
for the year ended December 31, 2009 and other continuous disclosure documents
filed by Orezone
since January 1, 2010 available at www.sedar.com, for this detailed information, which is subject to the
qualifications and notes set forth therein.