Delta drills high-grade gold in Mali (January 15, 2008)

Vancouver – Drilling by Delta Exploration (DEV-V, DEVDF-O) has turned up a couple of new gold discoveries on its Manalo gold project in southwestern Mali, West Africa.

The initial two reverse circulation (RC) drill holes on its Dialafara prospect, drilled under the main artisanal workings on the project area, cut near-surface high-grade gold. Hole DL-07-01 returned nine metres (from 71 metres downhole depth) grading 9.6 grams gold per tonne including a three-metre interval of 24.7 grams gold.

Its second hole, DL-07-02, sampled six metres (from 87 metres depth) of 29.1 grams gold.

At Dialafara the company is testing areas of strong gold-in-soils anomalies and coincident electromagnetic (EM) conductors associated with artisanal mining activity. Seven of its 13 holes drilled returned significant gold values associated with quartz veins in the clay-altered Birimian metasediments (siltstones and fine-grained sandstones).

Delta notes the artisanal site at Dialafara is located in the central portion of its permit and is about 107 metres by 70 metres in size. The workings are on the south end of a significant north-trending, anomalous gold-in-soils trend.

The company also recently tested several targets on its Mansaya prospect with a half-dozen RC drill holes. Results of up to 5 metres of 2 grams gold (in hole MS-07-03) were returned. Hole MS-07-04 sampled a 31-metre interval averaging 0.7 gram gold including 12 metres of 1 gram gold.

Delta also drilled 20 RC holes on its Manalo Nord Est prospect where previous drilling in mid-2006 intersected 11 metres of 18.5 grams gold in a quartz-filled shear structure. Its latest program returned intercepts of up to six metres of 12.1 grams gold in hole MN-07-12, including a 2-metre interval of 35.6 grams gold. The prospect was the focus of Delta’s early exploration at Manalo.

The company is tightening up the spacing of geochemical soil sampling – to refine some its targets at Manalo – and has also commenced an induced polarization survey. It intends to use both RC and core rigs in its next phase of drilling.

Besides its gold projects in Mali, Delta is also exploring uranium projects in Mali, Niger and Guinea.

Shares of Delta perked up about 10% on the gold intercepts, closing up 4 at 46 apiece on strong trading volume of almost 1.1 million. The stock posts a 52-week trading range of 28-$3.29.