Vancouver – Step-out and deep in-fill drilling at the Sabodala project in Senegal continue to return strong gold grades for Oromin Explorations (OLE-V, OLEPF-O).
Recent drilling has focused on defining and expanding resources at three targets: Golouma West, Golouma South, and Masato. The company plans to drill at least 75,000 metres in advance of a resource estimate scheduled for April 2008.
At Golouma West, mineralization has been traced over 1.5 km on surface and to a depth of 300 metres, still open in all directions. Drill results in the zone show short, high-grade intersections. Hole 132 returned 12 metres grading 8.74 grams gold per tonne from 49 metres depth, hole 152 hit 13 metres grading 6.07 grams gold, and hole 154 intersected 10 metres of 6.91 grams gold from 128 metres depth. Two of the longest intervals are 17 metres grading 3.36 grams gold in hole 165 and 18 metres of 4.8 grams gold in hole 168.
Hole 156 cut numerous mineralized intervals. From 17 metres depth the drill hit 5 metres grading 45.03 grams gold; starting 142 metres downhole the drill cut 11.29 grams gold over 10 metres; and from a depth of 165 metres the hole returned 7 metres grading 7.77 grams gold.
Oromin has traced the Golouma South deposit over a strike length of 1 km and a depth of 220 metres, still open in all directions. In a similar manner to Golouma West, most drill cores returned short, high-grade intercepts. Hole 138 cut 7.12 grams gold over 7 metres from 44 metres depth, hole 140 returned 11 metres grading 1.87 grams gold, and hole 150 hit 9.05 grams gold over 8 metres from 192 metres depth followed by 5.08 grams gold over 19 metres from 229 metres downhole.
The Masato zone is coincident with a strong gold-in-soil anomaly 2.6 km long by 1.2 km wide. It also coincides with three northeast-trending linear induced polarization changeability anomalies, of which only the westernmost has been drilled to date. Drilling at Masato is still wide-spaced. The best results of late include 5 metres of 3.22 grams gold from 58 metres depth, 1 metre of 3,945 grams gold from 63 metres downhole, and 14 metres of 3.56 grams gold from 64 metres depth, all in hole 131.
Oromin gained 30 or 9.2% on the news to close at $3.55. The company has a 52-week trading range of $1.85 to $4.18 and has 54.3 million shares issued.
Oromin holds 43.5% of the Sabodala project, with an equal portion held by Saudi-controlled Bendon International. Badr Investment & Finance holds the remaining 13% of the project. The government of Senegal retains a US$6.50-per-oz. royalty on any future production and a free carried interest after repayment of capital.
Oromin and partners were initially expected to spend US$8 million on exploration by April 2007 and then complete a feasibility study by February 2008. In March, the government of Senegal gave the Sabodala partners a 20-month exploration extension. They can now drill until December 2008 and then must finalise a feasibility study within ten months.
The multi-showing project is just 30 km south of the border with Mali and is in the same geological structure that hosts five gold mines in that country.
In other Oromin news, the company recently closed an $18-million private placement, raising $4.5 million in a non-brokered placement of 1.8 million units and $13.5 million in a brokered placement of 5.4 million units. In both cases, each unit consisted of one share and one half of a share purchase warrant.
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