Oromin Keeps Hitting Gold in Senegal

Vancouver — Making the most out of its exploration contract extension, Oromin Explorations (OLE-V, OLEPF-O) is pulling strong gold grades in step-out and deep infill drillling at its Sabodala project in Senegal.

Oromin’s 2007 drill program is focused on defining resources at three Sabodala targets: Golouma West, Golouma South, and Masato. The company plans more than 75,000 metres of drilling using both reverse-circulation (RC) and diamond core rigs.

At Golouma West, the mineralized target has been traced for over 1 km on surface and to a depth of 300 metres and remains open in all directions. Recent drilling has focused on the westernmost portion of the region where the east-west-trending mineralization has merged with with northeast-southwest-trending mineralization from Golouma northwest.

RC hole 113 hit the deepest mineralization to date at Golouma West, pulling 29 metres of 5.26 grams gold per tonne from 283 metres depth. And RC hole 144, the westernmost hole at Golouma West, returned 12 metres grading 2.98 grams gold from 216 metres.

RC hole 141 returned another strong result, pulling 21 metres of 6.99 grams gold from 214 metres down-hole, including 1 metre averaging 80.73 grams gold.

The Golouma South strike has been traced for 650 metres and to 160 metres depth. RC hole 127 intersected 14 metres of 7.06 grams gold from 157 metres depth, including 6 metres grading 14.32 grams gold. Other strong results include 12 metres of 4.84 grams gold from 9 metres down-hole in RC hole 134 and 9.55 grams gold over 4 metres from 18 metres depth in RC hole 133.

The Masato target, coincident with a strong gold-in-soil geochemical anomaly, has only seen wide-spaced drilling testing 1.4 km of the 2.6-km strike length. Diamond-drill hole 39 intersected 15.11 grams gold over 12 metres; more recently, hole 125 returned 3 metres of 14.32 grams gold from 131 metres depth, and hole 128 hit 7 metres of 3.32 grams gold starting at 58 metres.

Oromin holds a 43.5% stake in the Sabodala concession, as does Saudi-controlled Bendon International. Badr Investment & Finance holds the remaining 13%. The government of Senegal retains a US$6.50-per-oz. royalty on any production and a free carried interest after repayment of capital.

Under an earlier agreement, Oromin and its partners were expected to spend at least US$8 million on exploration by the end of April 2007, before starting a feasibility study expected by February 2008.

But following talks early this year, the government of Senegal is giving Oromin and its partners a 20-month extension, allowing them to continue drilling until Dec. 22, 2008, after which they would have another 10 months to complete a preliminary feasibility study.

Under the new agreement, title to the concession has been transferred on the same terms to the Oromin Joint Venture Group, a private company owned by the entities that were party to the original agreement. Oromin and Bendon will share equally in future spending on the property, but Oromin will continue to act as project operator.

Oromin was anxious to keep exploring because the Sabodala project is only 30 km south of the border with Mali and in the same geological structure that has spawned five gold mines in Mali.