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OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Jan.
28, 2010) - Orezone Gold Corporation (TSX:ORE) is pleased to report
that the Company has commenced a $2 million RC drill program to upgrade
and expand the oxide gold resources at its Bombore gold deposit in
Burkina Faso, West Africa. The deposit has 0.93 million ounces of
indicated resources and 1.78 million ounces of inferred resources at an
average recoverable gold grade of 0.6 g/t. Approximately one half of
the resources are oxidized and occur within 40 m from surface. The
program will be comprised of 25,000 m of drilling to upgrade the
oxidized resources to the indicated category and 10,000 m to test for
extensions to the pit shells that host the current resources. An
additional auger drilling program will test new undrilled targets
within the 14 km gold in soil anomaly to identify areas for further
oxide resource expansion. The program is expected to be completed
before the end of the second quarter with all results released by the
third quarter.
The drill program is part of an overall $3 to 4 million budget to
complete a preliminary economic assessment on the project. Positive
metallurgical results announced in December 2009 indicate that the
oxidized resources have expected heap leach recoveries of +80%. A
baseline environmental study was also completed in 2009. The drill
program will lead to an updated geological model, resource update and
optimized mining pit shells that will form the core of the assessment.
The Bombore project is located 85 km east of the capital city of
Ouagadougou along a major national highway. The topography, drainage
and rainfall are suitable to construct a large water reservoir without
negatively impacting those down stream. The project footprint is in an
area of low population density and an international power grid is
expected to be constructed in the near future. These infrastructure
advantages will translate into reduced project development and
operating costs.
The Company recently completed six test holes to depths up to 300 m
below several of the pit shells that contain the sulphide resources. Although
the geology and mineralization continue to these depths the grade of
the mineralization did not improve. The metallurgical study indicated that the deeper
sulphide mineralization is not conducive to heap leaching and therefore
would require recoverable grades of better than 1g/t and enough
resources to consider a CIL operation. As a result, further work on the
sulphides will be deferred until higher gold prices.
Orezone is a gold exploration and development company with more than 15
years experience in West Africa, one of the world's fastest growing
gold producing regions. Orezone delineated, developed, financed and
sold Burkina Faso's largest deposit (Essakane) to IAMGOLD for $350M and
continues to focus on developing the rest of its pipeline of advanced
projects including Bombore, one of the largest deposits in Burkina
Faso. 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.
Dr. Pascal Marquis, V.P. Exploration for Orezone, is a Qualified
Persons under National Instrument 43-101 and approved the technical
information in this release.
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 and forward-looking
information in this new release include statements with respect to the
scope and timing of the drilling project and metallurgical testing for
Bombore and the timing of the release of a resource update for the Sega
project.
Forward-looking statements are based on certain assumptions, opinions
and estimates of management at the date the statements are made, and
are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties that could cause
actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in
the forward-looking statements. The assumptions include that contracted
parties provide goods and/or services on the agreed timeframes, that
equipment necessary for the drilling program is available as scheduled,
that no labour shortages or delays are incurred, that no material
adverse change occurs to Orezone. Factors that could cause the
forward-looking statements and forward-looking information to differ
materially in actuality include the failure of contracted parties to
perform as contracted and the failure of equipment. 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, 2008, and other continuous disclosure documents filed by
Orezone since January 1, 2008 available at www.sedar.com, for
this detailed information, which is subject to the qualifications and
notes set forth therein.
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