What I find disturbing is that I couldn't find this news story on Yahoo nor TMX and if it hadn't been posted here I wouldn't have known about it.
Mr. Chet Idziszek reports
DRILLING CONFIRMATION OF THREE NEW DISCOVERIES, ADDITIONAL SUCCESSFULEXPANSION DRILLING AT MASATO, GOLOUMA SOUTH AND KEREKOUNDA DEPOSITS; COLUMNLEACH RESULTS CONFIRM OXIDE RECOVERY RATE OF 82.5% SELECTED FOR HEAP LEACHPRELIMINARY ECONOMIC ASSESSMENT
Oromin Explorations Ltd., on behalf of Oromin Joint Venture Group Ltd., isproviding an update from its 2011 exploration drilling program at the OJVG goldproject in eastern Senegal, West Africa. Current drilling plans for 2011include: broader-spaced lateral and depth extension drilling at the project'sfive primary gold deposits, namely Golouma West, Golouma South, Kerekounda,Kourouloulou and Masato; follow-up drilling at recent discoveries, includingKinemba and Koutouniokolla; and initial drilling evaluation at many of OJVG'snew prospects, including Saboraya, Kourouloulou South and Mankana.
Chet Idziszek, Oromin's president and chief executive officer, stated: "Thefirst three months of 2011 have proven to be extremely busy and exciting timesfor our company. Although we are nearing completion of mineral resource updateson nine deposits, our ongoing resource expansion drill program is continuingwith great success. New results from the Golouma South and Kerekounda depositshave confirmed downdip depth continuity of mineralization from surface to 450and 550 metres, respectively, which remains open to further expansion. Drillinghas also confirmed three new discoveries at Saboraya, Kourouloulou South andGolouma West extension, all of which are in close proximity to the main Goloumadeposits. Furthermore, results from column leach testwork being conducted forthe heap leach preliminary economic assessment have provided favourablerecoveries, which should enhance this new opportunity. We are also pleased thatthe government of Senegal has recently granted OJVG an additional year of taxholiday 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 resourceupdate for drilling completed to the end of 2010. SRK's resource update willcover five primary deposits Golouma West, Golouma South, Kerekounda,Kourouloulou and Masato. One key focus is initial detailed underground modellingfor the Masato deposit, previously viewed only as an open pit opportunity. Theresource update will also include drill results from high-grade intersectionsfrom early drill holes of the 2011 drill campaign. Their inclusion expands theunderground resource models at Golouma West and Masato.
Concurrent with SRK's resource estimate, DRA Americas Inc. is nearingcompletion of updates to its previous mineral resource estimates (see Sept. 22,2010, Stockwatch news release) for four bulk tonnage deposits: NiakafiriSoutheast, Niakafiri Southwest, Kobokoto and Maki Medina. Ausenco SolutionsCanada Inc. and SRK are currently completing a PEA of the viability of astand-alone heap leach operation employing the DRA updated resource. Inaddition, SRK is evaluating mineralized material that was previously designatedas waste within the Masato design pit because it was less than the0.7-gram-per-tonne-gold Masato carbon-in-leach reserve cut-off grade used in the2010 feasibility study. Now, any mineralized material within the previouslyclassified waste zone of the proposed 2010 Masato design pit above a0.2-gram-per-tonne-gold cut-off grade and below the 0.7-gram-per-tonne CILcut-off grade will be designated for heap leach processing in the PEA. None ofthe foregoing was included in OJVG's 2010 feasibility study.
Column leach testwork of different grade-composite samples of oxide and freshmaterial from the Niakafiri Southeast and Niakafiri Southwest deposits has beencompleted. Based on an approximate weighted average of the extraction rates fromthis recent testwork and previous column leach testwork from an oxide sample atMasato (82.7 per cent), Ausenco has determined that a fixed average recovery of82.5 per cent for oxide mineralization and a fixed average recovery of 60 percent for fresh material will be used for the heap leach PEA. The fixed recoveryrate determined by column leach testwork of fresh material is encouraging andmay justify treating unoxidized mineralization immediately beneath the oxidemineralization at all of the deposits considered in the PEA.
The resource updates and the PEA described herein are expected within onemonth.
Exploration update
Golouma-style deposits
The new drill results, along with those previously reported in the Feb. 3 andMarch 3, 2011, Stockwatch news releases, are listed in the attached tables.These drill results include 8.06 grams per tonne Au over 14 metres inDH-KKGT-11-1 and 4.91 g/t Au over 37 metres in GWWGT-11-02. They further confirmthe continuity of, and increasing potential to expand, mineralization for thosehigher-grade Golouma-style deposits downdip and below the limits of theresource/reserve block models used for the July, 2010, feasibility study.
Included within this set of new drill results is the deepest intersection todate at the Kerekounda deposit: 10.30 g/t gold over two metres from 489 to 491metres downhole, which represents 550 metres downdip from surface. Similarly,the deepest drilling intersections to date have been encountered at the GoloumaSouth deposit. Drill holes DH-961 and DH-966 both intersected the downdipextension of the Golouma South deposit alteration zones over six metres from 428to 436 metres and 20 metres from 423 to 443 metres, respectively. Visible goldwas reported in both of these intersections, approximately 450 metres downdipfrom surface. Assay results for both DH-961 and DH-966 are pending.
Positive initial results were received for both the Saboraya and theKourouloulou South prospects, including 8.91 g/t Au over five metres in RC-862and 2.43 g/t Au over seven metres in RC-856. The Kourouloulou South prospectoccurs midway between the Golouma South and Kourouloulou deposits, whereas theSaboraya prospect is located midway between the Kourouloulou and Kerekoundadeposits.
At the Golouma West extension, drill hole DH-971, planned to hit the GoloumaWest deposit approximately 700 metres downdip from surface and 125 metres to thewest of previous drilling success, has intersected a separate two-metre zonewith visible gold at 294 metres depth. It is believed that this intersection isseparate from the main Golouma West deposit and also separate and parallel tothe new 950 zone (46.75 g/t Au over two metres), which is located 50 metres tothe east. The surface projection of this visible gold intersection plots ontrend with a one-metre sample at the beginning of an excavator trench located 50metres farther west that assayed 45.7 g/t gold. Additional drilling is plannedto 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 proposedopen pit include 4.01 g/t Au over 12 metres in DH-954 and 2.91 g/t Au over 25metres in DH-960. They further continue to confirm and extend the zones ofhigher-grade gold mineralization potentially amenable to underground mining. TheMasato deposit mineralization is now being modelled as a combined open pit andunderground 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 NationalInstrument 43-101 and has verified the data disclosed in this news release.William Bond, PGeo, is also a qualified person for the purposes of NationalInstrument 43-101 and has supervised geologic field procedures. TSL Laboratoriesin Saskatoon carried out all assaying under industry-standard qualityassurance/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.