Detour Gold finds more gold outside proposed open-pit area

Detour Gold (DGC-T) says it is on track to complete a feasibility study on its Detour Lake project in northern Ontario in the second quarter of 2010 but in the meantime incoming assay results are showing wide intersections of gold outside the property’s proposed open-pit area.

Highlights from an additional forty holes totaling 18,052 metres from Detour Gold’s 2009 infill drill program indicate that in the Calcite zone, results from 24 infill holes “continued to show good continuity of the gold mineralization with several wide intercepts outside the proposed open pit.”

Holes DG-09-773B and DG-09-783 intersected 4.27 grams gold per tonne (uncut) or 2.13 grams gold per tonne (cut) over 68 metres and 1.42 grams gold (uncut) or 1.26 grams gold (cut) over 68 metres, respectively. DG-09-781A intersected 1.57 grams (uncut) or 1.34 grams (cut) over 66.7 metres.

In the Gap zone, to the west of the former open-pit area, results from 10 infill holes includedDG-07-013, which intersected 4.81 grams (uncut) or 3.08 grams (cut) over 21 metres. DG-07-091 returned 5.27 grams (uncut) or 3.81 grams (cut) over 12 metres and 4.91 grrams (uncut) or 4.18 grams (cut) over 24 metres.

In the West pit area, hole DG-09-780 encountered 1.47 grams over 35 metres.

Since Detour Gold acquired the deposit in January 2007, it has completed 332,178 metres of drilling.

The Toronto-based company plans to incorporate about 325,403 metres of drilling into the feasibility study — representing an additional 76,795 metres from the pre-feasibility study — that will be included in the upcoming reserve estimate.

This year’s 60,000-metre drill program kicked off earlier this month with six drill rigs. Drilling will target areas west of the proposed open pit.

The pre-feasibility study database included drill data from the pre-Detour Gold programs, and Detour Gold’s 2007, 2008, and 2009 drill campaigns up to the cut-off date of June 1, 2009. It included a total of 789,808 metres of drilling in 5,612 holes, including 247,998 metres from Detour Gold.

According to the study, at a cut-off grade of 0.6 gram gold per tonne, measured and indicated resources stand at 445.9 million tones grading 1.2 grams gold per tonne for 17.6 million oz. contained gold. In the inferred category the deposit hosts an estimated 151.4 million tonnes grading 1.07 grams gold for 5.18 million oz. contained gold.

The gold project is in the Abitibi Greenstone Belt in northeastern Ontario and is about 8 km west of the border between Ontario and Quebec and 180 km northeast of Cochrane, Ontario.

The deposit is near the former Detour Lake mine, which between1983 and 1999 produced about 1.76 million oz. gold from the milling of 14.3 million tonnes of ore at an average recovered grade of 3.82 grams gold. That included 5.2 million tonnes grading 2.57 grams gold from the open pit and 9.1 million tonnes grading 4.98 grams gold from underground. Average mill recoveries were 93.2 %.

Detour Gold is trading at about $17.93 per share and over the last year has traded in a range of $6.25-$18.98 per share. The company has 69.2 million shares outstanding.