SEMAFO (TSX:SMF) today announced results of the 2010 exploration program at its Samira Hill Mine located in Niger, Africa. Phase II of the program, which commenced on July 9, 2010 is designed to test and define new proximal gold zones that can quickly become part of the near-term mine plan and has returned results including 27.77 g/t Au over four meters.
To date, 20,000 meters of the planned 41,000 meters of reverse-circulation ("RC") drilling have been completed and partial assay results are available for three of the ten targeted areas scheduled to undergo testing.
Libdorado NW
The Libdorado NW program was designed to better define the new gold zone identified in phase I of the program (reference SEMAFO's release dated March 8, 2010). The Libdorado NW Zone is characterized by narrow but high-grade quartz zones found in altered sediments and located immediately north of the Libiri Pit. Results continue to return high grade values. Although several more holes will be drilled later this year to refine the comprehension of some areas, the Libdorado NW zone is scheduled for definition drilling in 2011, prior to engineering and mining planning.
Phase II Libdorado NW Highlights
Figure 1 (http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/semafo1014_figure1.pdf) illustrates a longitudinal section of the main zone found at Libdorado NW, where late doleritic dykes cross the zone. Results suggest a shallow east plunge of the mineralization, where it reaches the north wall of the Libiri Pit.
Libiri SE
The area to the south of the Libiri Pit (Figure 2: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/semafo1014_figure2.pdf) contains many gold zones which were previously under defined. Current surface mapping and modelling has helped to provide a better understanding of the geometry of the mineralization and an extensive drilling program was designed to test the models. Results are very encouraging.
Phase II Libiri SE Highlights
The second half of the program focused primarily on the Boulon Jounga area, located 10 kilometers northwest of the Samira processing plant. Boulon Jounga is host to the open pit of the same name and has accounted for a good portion of Samira Hill's 2010 production. The ore from Boulon Jounga is characteristically above average grade. In addition, recoveries are generally higher than average within the saprolitic parts of the deposit. The deposit itself is compact and locally shallow dipping. As described in SEMAFO's press release dated March 8, 2010, other Boulon Jounga type deposits have been identified to the east of the pit. Further drilling will be completed to test the extensions of these new zones along with other nearby areas where auger drilling has identified priority drill targets.
"We are pleased with the developments at Samira Hill in 2010. The exploration team at Samira is focusing on providing our operations team with readily available ore and accordingly, allowing for mine planning flexibility," said Benoit Desormeaux Executive Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer. "This will enable the blending of different ore types and optimize the recoveries and throughput."
The exploration programs were designed and managed locally by Aziz Amane, SML Exploration Chief Geologist and Richard Roy P Geo, Deputy Geology Manager, and guided and supervised under the direction of Michel Crevier, P.Geo MScA, Geology Manager and SEMAFO's Qualified Person who has reviewed this press release for accuracy and compliance with National Instrument 43-101.
All individual samples represent approximately one-meter in length of rock chips homogenized and riffle-split to an approximately 2-kilogram sub-sample, which is sent for preparation and gold assaying at the ALS Minerals laboratories in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Each sample is fire-assayed for gold content on a 50-gram sub-sample at the same ALS Minerals laboratory. In addition to ALS Minerals' own QA/QC (Quality Assurance/Quality Control) program, an internal quality control and quality assurance program is in place throughout the sampling program, using blind duplicates, blanks and recognized industry standards.
Source: Semafo Inc.