Nampala up to 760,000 oz. gold

Now that Robex Resources (RBX-V, RSRBF-O) has an official inferred resource for its Nampala gold deposit in southern Mali, it’s looking at where to drill next to bump those numbers into the indicated category.

The current resource is about 27 million tonnes grading 0.9 gram gold per tonne, or 760,000 oz. gold. That’s 25,000 oz. more gold than was estimated in an April preliminary report. Resources were based on drilling completed in 2006.

“We want to keep drilling,” says Robex president and CEO Richard Savard. “The deposit is open to the west, north and at depth.”

This fall, Savard will have a consultant visit the Mininko property to advise on where to drill both the Nampala and the N’Golola deposits, located on the northeastern and southeastern portions of the property, respectively.

It’s not set in stone, but Savard says Robex will do about 5,000 metres of reverse-circulation (RC) drilling and 3,000 metres of diamond drilling on Nampala, and another 5,000 metres of RC drilling on N’Golola.

So far, most of the drilling hasn’t gone below about 100 metres depth. The consultant is going to advise on deeper drilling that could extend beyond 300 metres. A few holes drilled below the 100-metre level intersected mineralized tonalite. For example, drill hole 602 intersected 12 metres grading 1.58 grams gold per tonne starting at 119 metres depth.

Savard says the company will be testing for rich pockets of gold with the deeper diamond drilling.

Savard is also interested in learning more about the N’Golola deposit, where a 9-metre intersection graded 3.95 grams gold per tonne.

The Mininko property is near the Morila gold mine operated by AngloGold Ashanti (AU-N, AGD-L, AGG-A) and Randgold Resources (GOLD-Q, RRS-L) and the Syama gold mine, operated by Resolute Mining (RMGGF-O, RSG-A). Morila produced about 500,000 oz. gold in 2006 and Syama, which has a resource of 6.4 million oz., is scheduled to start production this year.