Article Oliver Lennox-King and John Dorward's Roxgold Inc. (ROXG), up seven cents to $1.17 on 1.23 million shares, has increased its resource estimate at the Bagassi South deposit, less than two kilometres from its underground gold mine at the 55 zone, on the Yaramoko project in Burkina Faso. The new tally lists 352,000 tonnes indicated at 16.6 grams of gold per tonne and another 130,000 inferred at a similar grade, providing a total of 257,000 ounces of gold. The previous estimate listed 563,000 tonnes inferred at 12.1 grams per tonne, or 220,000 ounces. The revision follows a major infill and expansion program that concluded recently, in which Roxgold completed 136 holes and a cumulative 29,160 metres of drilling.
Mr. Dorward, president and chief executive officer, deems Bagassi South to be a second high-grade indicated mineral resource that "highlights the prospectivity of the permit and Roxgold's potential for organic growth." Mr. Dorward says that exploration, or as he calls it, Roxgold's "organic growth strategy", will continue with an approved budget of $8-million for the rest of the year. The company had a reserve of 1.8 million tonnes at 55 zone at the end of last year, averaging 11.45 grams per tonne, or about 660,000 ounces. Finding more is a priority, as the mine is producing at a rate of about 110,000 ounces per year.
The Toronto-based Mr. Dorward has been the company's president and CEO since 2012 and for the past two years he has been receiving $360,000 per year in annual salary. Last year, he also collected a $325,000 cash bonus. Mr. Lennox-King, chairman, received $105,000 in director's fees last year.