Oromins Idziszek and Dragovan focus on West African gold

Vancouver – It seems like a far cry from the gold discoveries that made Oromin Explorations (OLE-V) President Chet Idziszek and partner Nell Dragovan household names in Canadian exploration circles.

But eyeing the potential in a region that the couple consider to be under-explored, they have turned their attention to Senegal, a West African country, which has lately been experimenting with democracy after 40 years of Socialist Party rule ended in 2000.

The focus of Oromins exploration effort is the 230 square-kilometre Sabodala concession in southeastern Senegal, which is now the flagship project for a company that is also exploring for oil in Argentina and gold in Brazil.

The property is located about 30 kilometers south of the border which separates Senegal from Mali, and within a geological horizon which hosts five gold mines in Mali, including Sadiola Hill. Together, they are estimated to host 30 million oz.

Australian company Mineral Deposits Ltd. (MDL-A), has outlined a gold resource of 2.2 million oz. which it hopes to develop on property that is surrounded by Oromins Sabodala concession.

This is one of the best places we have worked in, said Idziszek, a 59-year-old geologist, and former director of exploration activities for the late promoter Murray Pezim. In that role he was involved a long list of discoveries, including Eskay Creek in northern British Columbia and Petaquilla in Panama.

Idziszek is married to Dragovan, an Oromin director, who is best known for her involvement in the Hemlo, Ont. gold discoveries.

It was that track record, according to Idziszek, which enabled Oromin to emerge as the successful bidder in an open bidding process when Sabodala came up for sale in October 2004.

Now the Vancouver company is part of a joint venture group that is earning a 100% stake in the Sabodala concessions from the Senegalese government in return for spending at least US$8 million on exploration by April 2007.

Having actually invested US$11 million by the end of last year, the joint venture had agreed to complete a feasibility study by February 2008.

Holding a 43.5% stake in the concession, Oromin is working with Saudi-controlled Bendon International, which owns 43.5%, and Badr Investment & Finance Co., with 13%. The government of Senegal retains a US$6.50-per-oz. royalty on any future production and a free carried interest after repayment of capital.

Oromin is the operator and provides management services to the joint venture.

Jim Stewart, Oromins director and corporate counsel said Oromin decided to get involved after it was alerted to the potential at Sabodala by a former Saudi based director of one of Oromins sister companies Madison Minerals. Mr. Stewart declined to name the former Madison director but said he agreed to cover any due diligence expenses.

We had the technical wherewithal and our Saudi partners had the funds to back us, said Idziszek. Oromin decided to bid on the project because Senegal remains relatively unexplored in comparison to Mali, but has a similar geological environment.

The geological and structural setting of the Sabodala region has similarities to Malis gold districts and to other orogenic gold camps in the world, such as Timmins in Canada and Ashanti in Canada,” the company said in a report posted on its website.

It said the concession is underlain by a sequence of Birimian-age volcanics and sediments, within a system which hosts a series of world class gold deposits discovered over the past two decades in Mali, and more recently in eastern Senegal.

They include Malis largest producing mine, the 480,000 oz. per year Sadiola Hill deposit, which is operated by Iamgold (IMG-T, IAG-N). Other gold mines in the region include Yatela, Kofi southwest, Loulo and Segala/Tabakoto.

The companys game plan is to find a sufficient number of gold deposits to feed a central processing plant.

In a bid to earn the interest, Oromin agreed to complete a 10,000-metre drilling program designed to follow up on previous sampling a trenching work on the property. The company has said drilling is focusing on four targets, known as Golouma, Niakafiri South, and Masato.

The grade and style of mineralization at Masato is similar to Mineral Deposits Ltd.s (MDLs) Sabodala deposit, located 1.2 kilometres to the west. MDL is continuing to expand and upgrade the resource it has outlined so far, while arranging to raise US$150 million in production financing.

Golouma covers a series of structurally-controlled, outcropping vein systems, as well as artisanal workings and geochemical anomalies. The company said recent drilling and trenching suggest that the broad Golouma geochemical anomaly (1.5 by 3 kilometres, and open for expansion) contains multiple zones of mineralization, including three near surface.

The Niakafiri South target has been traced for more than two kilometres south of MDLs concession boundary and is open to the south and west. The first drill hole returned 7 metres of grade 1.15 grams gold per tonne and 8 metres of 2.29 grams.

On January 18, Oromin released the results of 10 holes, which tested the Golouma South gold zone just before the Christmas break. Highlights included the southernmost hole completed to date, which returned 9 metres of 24.58 grams gold.

These new drill results confirm and expand the lateral and depth continuity of gold mineralization previously identified at Golouma South by both excavator trenching and diamond core drilling, the company said in its release.

Having resumed drilling on January 11, Oromin said reverse circulation rigs will focus on drilling at 40-metre spacings, of known mineralized zones as a precursor to future resource calculations. Diamond core rigs will be used to broadly define the lateral and vertical extent of gold zones and deeper drilling requirements.

On February 15, the stock was trading at $3.43 on the TSX Venture Exchange. The 52-week range is $4.10 and $1.30.