Volta Drilling Confirms A New Porphyry Copper Target At Its Gaoua Project In Southwestern Burkina Faso
(The tables didn't copy well - see website:
https://www.voltaresources.com/s/Home.asp)
Friday, February 26, 2010
Toronto, ON -- February 26, 2010 - Volta Resources Inc. ("Volta" or the "Company") (TSX:VTR) announces that a five hole scout drilling program, recently completed on the Company's wholly-owned Gaoua Project in southwestern Burkina Faso, has confirmed porphyry-style copper mineralization at the Boussera Target. The mineralization is similar to that encountered at the Dienemera and Gongondy copper-gold porphyry deposits on the Gaoua Project, where a maiden NI43-101 compliant resource comprising more than 1 million ounces of gold and 720 million pounds of copper have been estimated (see Figure 1 and Table 3).
Commenting on the results Guy Franceschi, Vice-President, Exploration of Volta stated, "These results are very encouraging in that they confirm the presence of copper-gold mineralization of the first of many "blind" targets identified by Volta following 3D processing of the airborne magnetic data and by auger drilling under cover. This deeper reverse circulation ("RC") drilling program undertaken at Boussera was limited to the eastern edge of a very large auger-defined copper-gold anomaly which will require additional drilling to fully test. The results underline the prospectivity of the 35km long porphyry corridor which host many more blind targets which remain to be tested."
Highlights from the initial five hole program include 24m @ 0.25% Cu, 13m @ 0.2% Cu and 10m @ 0.28% Cu. Four of the five holes were drilled to depths of 90 meters, one hole (GDRC5) was halted at 51m depth due to technical problems with the drill rig and before reaching the inferred extension of the mineralization. All holes were drilled on the same section, inclined at -55° to the east (see Figure 2). In all, 409 samples and 63 control samples (standards duplicates and blanks), were submitted to ALS Chemex's laboratories in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso for gold analysis and Vancouver, Canada, for copper analysis. Gold analyses were done by fire assay on a 50g charge while copper analyses were done by atomic absorption spectrometry after Acqua Regia digestion. The copper results should be considered as representing only the leachable portion of the copper present.
Table 1: Highlights of copper-gold intersections at Boussera.
1) Intervals are drilled lengths. True width is unknown at this time. 2) Intersections are based on a 0.2% Cu cut-off with no top cut applied. Internal dilution (less than 0.2% Cu) has been carried to a maximum of 2m. The 0.2% Cu cut-off best expresses the lower-grade envelope. 3) The intersections listed in the table represent sections of at least 3m@ 0.2% Cu. 4) Dry 1m-interval samples were riffle-split to provide 2 kg samples sent to the laboratory. Wet samples were dried in the field, then riffle-split in the same way. 5) Samples were sent to ALS Chemex in Ouagadougou for standard preparation and gold assaying (FA) and to ALS Chemex in Vancouver for Cu assaying by atomic absorption spectrometry. 6) One standard, one blank and one field duplicate were inserted respectively every 15, 30 and 20 samples. The blanks, certified standards and check assays confirm that all assays used to compile the intersections quoted here have passed Volta's rigorous QA/QC checks.
The mineralization occurs in brecciated diorite under complex regolith, including transported laterite and alluvium, which has resulted in muting or even masking the geochemical response normally provided by soil sampling. The target was initially identified by processing of the Company's high resolution heli-borne geophysical data, supported by ground Induced Polarization ("IP") geophysical surveys (see news release of 2 April 2009). Subsequent auger drilling confirmed the presence of a large copper-gold anomaly at Boussera (see news release of 28 September 2009), about half-way between the Gongondy and Dienemera deposits (see Figure 1). The drill-tested small eastern portion of the Boussera Cu-Au anomaly has returned low gold values.
The identification of a porphyry-style, breccia-hosted copper mineralization at Boussera underlines the prospectivity of the area to identify additional copper-gold porphyry occurrences on the Gaoua Project. The Boussera occurrence is one of 30 targets, including the known mineralization at Gongondy, Dienemera and Mont Biri, that have been identified from three dimensional ("3D") processing and interpretation the Company's heli-borne magnetic data over the Gaoua project. The value of 3D data processing methodology has now been clearly demonstrated and justifies the systematic follow-up of all the other targets with shallow auger drilling and subsequent RC and core drilling.
Table 2: Borehole collar coordinates and orientation parameters.
* Datum WGS84, coordinates as planned, final coordinates to be surveyed and confirmed.
On February 5, 2009, the Company announced an independent NI 43-101 compliant inferred resource estimate for the Gongondy and Dienemera deposits on the Gaoua project (See Volta press release dated February 5 2009). The resource estimate was calculated by SRK Consulting (UK) Ltd. At a 0.45% copper equivalent cut-off grade, the Dienemera and Gongondy deposits host an initial Inferred Resource of 82,600,000 tonnes grading 0.40% copper and 0.40 g/t gold for a total of 724,880,000 lbs of copper and 1,072,900 ounces of gold. The individual resource estimate for each deposit is provided in the table below. Copper Equivalent (CuEQ) has been calculated from assumed commodity prices of USD 3,000 per tonne for copper and USD 700 per ounce of gold with metallurgical recovery assumed to be 85% and 70% respectively based on initial QEMSCAN results. Gold grade has been multiplied by 0.6 and added to the copper grade to provide CuEQ grade. The cut off grade further assumes typical costs of US$2 per tonne for mining and US$10 per tonne for processing and general administration costs.
Table 3: Maiden NI43-101 compliant copper-gold resource estimate for the Gaoua Project.
Under the guidelines of National Instrument 43-101, the qualified person for the Gaoua copper-gold project is Mr. Guy Franceschi, Vice President, Exploration for the Company. Mr. Franceschi is a member of the European Federation of Geologists and has reviewed and approved the contents of this news release.
Volta is a mineral exploration company primarily focused on becoming a leader in the identification, acquisition and exploration of gold properties in West Africa. The Company is committed to West African exploration and is Canadian-based with its head office in Toronto, Ontario and operations offices in Accra, Ghana and Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
For further information, please refer to our website
www.Voltaresources.com or contact:
Kevin Bullock, P.Eng., President & CEO
Tel: (647) 388-1842
Fax: (416) 867-2298
Email: kbullock@voltaresources.com
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