Orezone ties on to Sadiola

Ottawa-based Orezone Resources (ORZ-T) has picked up an option on the Kantela property, which adjoins the producing Sadiola Hill gold mine in western Mali.

The deal, with a private syndicate, gives the junior a 51% interest in the property for cash payments of $100,000 over three years, and a commitment to spend US$500,000 on exploration. When the 51% interest is earned, a further $100,000 in cash and exploration expenditures of US$1 million will earn the remaining 49% interest.

The vendor keeps a 3% net smelter return; Orezone may reduce that to 1% for US$1 million.

Kantela adjoins the Sadiola property, held by AngloGold (AU-N), Iamgold (img-t) and the Malian government, on the south, about 15 km from the open pit. A 2-km-long zone of soils with anomalous gold concentrations has not been fully tested, and Orezone intends to drill in the area before the end of June.

Also, the company plans to drill at depth at the Homasi gold deposit in southwestern Ghana, where it has an option to acquire a 100% interest from Australian junior Dominion Mining. Dominion had calculated a resource of about 5 million tonnes grading 2.2 grams gold per tonne, but the resource is untested below 150 metres.

Orezone hopes to uncover evidence for a larger dilation zone at depth with mineralized shoots similar to the nearby Obuasi gold mine of Ashanti Goldfields (ASL-N).