Grandich Update on Oromin
Years of focused exploration and drilling at the OJVG Gold Project in Senegal appear to be paying off for Oromin Explorations, which has a positive feasibility study in hand for a proposed open-pit/underground mine that could pour its first gold in 2012. The proposed US$291-million mine is estimated to operate at rates ranging from 4,250 to 7,390 tonnes per day and produce an average of 196,000 ounces of gold annually at a cash cost of US$409 per ounce in its first three years. But that’s not close to the entire story, as the newly released feasibility study is based on only five of nine known gold deposits and therefore represents just a portion of the project’s overall value. Resource updates are anticipated in August and again by year-end 2010, building on a current total resource exceeding 3.27 million ounces (2.86 million measured/indicated and 410,000 inferred) and current reserve of 1.42 million ounces of contained gold
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Ongoing engineering studies to be completed by year-end are examining many opportunities to improve project economics, including expanding and upgrading reserves and resources within five deposits, evaluating the size and mining potential of four deposits not yet included in the feasibility study and drill-testing multiple new targets. Along with a feasibility study showing an economically robust mine with favorable metallurgy (average 89.2% gold recovery), Oromin is advancing a project with exceptional upside potential for both higher grade deposits and lower grade bulk-tonnage deposits. As an example, the higher grade Golouma deposits currently host 1.2 million ounces of indicated gold resources to roughly 300 meters vertical extent. Analogous deposits in West Africa typically continue to far greater depths, up to 2.5 km in the case of the Obouassi Mine in Ghana. The Government of Senegal has granted OJVG a 15-year renewable mining license, another major step toward developing West Africa’s next major gold-mining camp.
