Oromin continues good results
DRILLING CONFIRMATION OF THREE NEW DISCOVERIES, ADDITIONAL SUCCESSFUL EXPANSION DRILLING AT MASATO, GOLOUMA SOUTH AND KEREKOUNDA DEPOSITS; COLUMN LEACH RESULTS CONFIRM OXIDE RECOVERY RATE OF 82.5% SELECTED FOR HEAP LEACH PRELIMINARY ECONOMIC ASSESSMENT
Oromin Explorations Ltd., on behalf of Oromin Joint Venture Group Ltd., is providing an update from its 2011 exploration drilling program at the OJVG gold project in eastern Senegal, West Africa. Current drilling plans for 2011 include: broader-spaced lateral and depth extension drilling at the project’s five primary gold deposits, namely Golouma West, Golouma South, Kerekounda, Kourouloulou and Masato; follow-up drilling at recent discoveries, including Kinemba and Koutouniokolla; and initial drilling evaluation at many of OJVG’s new prospects, including Saboraya, Kourouloulou South and Mankana.
Chet Idziszek, Oromin’s president and chief executive officer, stated: “The first three months of 2011 have proven to be extremely busy and exciting times for our company. Although we are nearing completion of mineral resource updates on nine deposits, our ongoing resource expansion drill program is continuing with great success. New results from the Golouma South and Kerekounda deposits have confirmed downdip depth continuity of mineralization from surface to 450 and 550 metres, respectively, which remains open to further expansion. Drilling has also confirmed three new discoveries at Saboraya, Kourouloulou South and Golouma West extension, all of which are in close proximity to the main Golouma deposits. Furthermore, results from column leach testwork being conducted for the heap leach preliminary economic assessment have provided favourable recoveries, which should enhance this new opportunity. We are also pleased that the government of Senegal has recently granted OJVG an additional year of tax holiday increasing the period from seven years to eight.”
Resource and heap leach PEA update
SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc. is entering the final stages of the resource update for drilling completed to the end of 2010. SRK’s resource update will cover five primary deposits Golouma West, Golouma South, Kerekounda, Kourouloulou and Masato. One key focus is initial detailed underground modelling for the Masato deposit, previously viewed only as an open pit opportunity. The resource update will also include drill results from high-grade intersections from early drill holes of the 2011 drill campaign. Their inclusion expands the underground resource models at Golouma West and Masato.
Concurrent with SRK’s resource estimate, DRA Americas Inc. is nearing completion of updates to its previous mineral resource estimates (see Sept. 22, 2010, Stockwatch news release) for four bulk tonnage deposits: Niakafiri Southeast, Niakafiri Southwest, Kobokoto and Maki Medina. Ausenco Solutions Canada Inc. and SRK are currently completing a PEA of the viability of a stand-alone heap leach operation employing the DRA updated resource. In addition, SRK is evaluating mineralized material that was previously designated as waste within the Masato design pit because it was less than the 0.7-gram-per-tonne-gold Masato carbon-in-leach reserve cut-off grade used in the 2010 feasibility study. Now, any mineralized material within the previously classified waste zone of the proposed 2010 Masato design pit above a 0.2-gram-per-tonne-gold cut-off grade and below the 0.7-gram-per-tonne CIL cut-off grade will be designated for heap leach processing in the PEA. None of the foregoing was included in OJVG’s 2010 feasibility study.
Column leach testwork of different grade-composite samples of oxide and fresh material from the Niakafiri Southeast and Niakafiri Southwest deposits has been completed. Based on an approximate weighted average of the extraction rates from this recent testwork and previous column leach testwork from an oxide sample at Masato (82.7 per cent), Ausenco has determined that a fixed average recovery of 82.5 per cent for oxide mineralization and a fixed average recovery of 60 per cent for fresh material will be used for the heap leach PEA. The fixed recovery rate determined by column leach testwork of fresh material is encouraging and may justify treating unoxidized mineralization immediately beneath the oxide mineralization at all of the deposits considered in the PEA.
The resource updates and the PEA described herein are expected within one month.
Exploration update
Golouma-style deposits
The new drill results, along with those previously reported in the Feb. 3 and March 3, 2011, Stockwatch news releases, are listed in the attached tables. These drill results include 8.06 grams per tonne Au over 14 metres in DH-KKGT-11-1 and 4.91 g/t Au over 37 metres in GWWGT-11-02. They further confirm the continuity of, and increasing potential to expand, mineralization for those higher-grade Golouma-style deposits downdip and below the limits of the resource/reserve block models used for the July, 2010, feasibility study.
Included within this set of new drill results is the deepest intersection to date at the Kerekounda deposit: 10.30 g/t gold over two metres from 489 to 491 metres downhole, which represents 550 metres downdip from surface. Similarly, the deepest drilling intersections to date have been encountered at the Golouma South deposit. Drill holes DH-961 and DH-966 both intersected the downdip extension of the Golouma South deposit alteration zones over six metres from 428 to 436 metres and 20 metres from 423 to 443 metres, respectively. Visible gold was reported in both of these intersections, approximately 450 metres downdip from surface. Assay results for both DH-961 and DH-966 are pending.
Positive initial results were received for both the Saboraya and the Kourouloulou South prospects, including 8.91 g/t Au over five metres in RC-862 and 2.43 g/t Au over seven metres in RC-856. The Kourouloulou South prospect occurs midway between the Golouma South and Kourouloulou deposits, whereas the Saboraya prospect is located midway between the Kourouloulou and Kerekounda deposits.
At the Golouma West extension, drill hole DH-971, planned to hit the Golouma West deposit approximately 700 metres downdip from surface and 125 metres to the west of previous drilling success, has intersected a separate two-metre zone with visible gold at 294 metres depth. It is believed that this intersection is separate from the main Golouma West deposit and also separate and parallel to the new 950 zone (46.75 g/t Au over two metres), which is located 50 metres to the east. The surface projection of this visible gold intersection plots on trend with a one-metre sample at the beginning of an excavator trench located 50 metres farther west that assayed 45.7 g/t gold. Additional drilling is planned to evaluate this new zone. Also, DH-971 is still in progress as of April 7, 2011.
NEW AND PREVIOUSLY REPORTED RESULTS
New results Previously reported in Stockwatch
(Feb. 3 and March 3)
Kerekounda deposit
10.30 g/t Au over 2 m in DH-956 7.51 g/t Au over 2 m in DH-946
8.06 g/t Au over 14 m in KKGT-11-01
Golouma West deposit Golouma West deposit
43.76 g/t Au over 1 m in GWCGT-11-01 46.75 g/t Au over 2 m in DH-950
and 6.77 g/t Au over 7 m
4.91 g/t Au over 37 m in GWWGT-11-02 9.25 g/t Au over 4 m in GWGT-11-01
incl. 11.43 g/t Au over 9 m and 12.04 g/t
Au over 2 m
4.03 g/t Au over 4 m in GWGT-11-01
5.23 g/t Au over 12 m in DH-907
6.13 g/t Au over 12 m in DH-939
15.24 g/t Au over 2 m in DH-941
5.85 g/t Au over 5 m in DH-941
2.99 g/t Au over 11 m in DH-943
3.01 g/t Au over 17 m in DH-944
10.26 g/t Au over 3 m in DH-947
6.00 g/t Au over 28 m in DH-948
Saboraya prospect
6.94 g/t Au over 4 m in RC-860 and 3.19
g/t Au over 5 m
8.91 g/t Au over 5 m in RC-862
Kourouloulou South
prospect
2.43 g/t Au over 7 m in RC-856
Masato deposit (underground)
At the Masato deposit, new results from mineralized zones below the proposed open pit include 4.01 g/t Au over 12 metres in DH-954 and 2.91 g/t Au over 25 metres in DH-960. They further continue to confirm and extend the zones of higher-grade gold mineralization potentially amenable to underground mining. The Masato deposit mineralization is now being modelled as a combined open pit and underground operation by SRK.
ADDITIONAL NEW AND PREVIOUSLY REPORTED RESULTS
New results Masato Previously reported in Stockwatch
deposit (Feb. 3 and March 3)
4.01 g/t Au over 12 m in DH-954 15.66 g/t Au over 7 m in DH-949
3.79 g/t Au over 18 m in DH-957 2.20 g/t Au over 11 m in DH-949
3.15 g/t Au over 11 m in DH-959 5.15 g/t Au over 10 m in MASGT-11-01
2.91 g/t Au over 25 m in DH-960 1.99 g/t Au over 26 m in DH-936
16.39 g/t Au over 1 m in DH-945
3.00 g/t Au over 6 m in DH-946
Doug Turnbull, PGeo, is a qualified person for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101 and has verified the data disclosed in this news release. William Bond, PGeo, is also a qualified person for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101 and has supervised geologic field procedures. TSL Laboratories in Saskatoon carried out all assaying under industry-standard quality assurance/quality control procedures.
GOLOUMA-STYLE DEPOSITS
Gold
From-to Interval grade
Deposit (m) (m) (g/t)
Kerekounda 489-491 2 10.30
KKGT-11-01 358-372 14 8.06
incl. 368-372 4 23.20
incl. 369-370 1 78.14
Golouma 343-344 1 43.76
West 424-431 7 6.77
incl. 424-425 1 35.89
GWWGT-11-02 466-503 37 4.91
incl. 467-476 9 11.43
incl. 494-496 2 12.04
DH-950* 576-578 2 46.75
716-721 5 1.51
GWGT-11-01* 177-181 4 9.25
incl. 179-180 1 19.15
320-356 36 1.28
incl. 336-347 11 2.41
incl. 336-340 4 4.03
Saboraya 107-109 2 4.18
3-7 4 6.94
incl. 3-5 2 13.02
121-126 5 3.19
incl. 122-124 2 6.10
80-85 5 8.91
incl. 80-83 3 14.54
incl. 81-82 1 34.84
Kourouloulou 29-36 7 2.43
South 31-33 2 4.12
25-33 8 1.37
incl. 25-27 2 3.45
* Previously reported in Stockwatch on March 3, 2011.
MASATO DEPOSIT RESULTS
Gold
Drill From-to Interval grade
Deposit hole (m) (m) (g/t)
Masato DH-954 246-258 12 4.03
incl. 247-253 6 6.55
DH-957 218-236 18 3.79
incl. 229-236 7 6.02
DH-959 206-217 11 3.15
incl. 213-216 3 7.06
DH-960 209-234 25 2.91
incl. 220-227 7 5.85
DH-949* 200-207 7 15.66
incl. 200-201 1 99.47
226-236 10 1.38
incl. 231-234 3 2.36
289-300 11 2.20
incl. 295-299 4 4.12
MASGT-11-01* 261-271 10 5.15
275-276 1 5.35
* Previously reported in Stockwatch on March 3, 2011.
Mineralized intervals are based on one-metre samples utilizing 1.0-gram-per-tonne-gold cut-off levels, with a maximum internal dilution of two metres. The attitude of mineralized intervals varies, and reported mineralized intersections may not represent true widths. The primary purpose for the xGT sequence of drill holes was to acquire geotechnical data, and, as such, mineralized zones, as secondary targets, were often intersected at oblique orientations and not representative of true widths. This is compensated for during any future modelling and resource evaluation processes.
We seek Safe Harbor.
