Orbis updates Natougou estimate

THE CONFERENCE CALLER: Orbis Gold (ASX: OBS) took advantage of the first day buoyancy of the Diggers & Dealers Conference to announce an updated Mineral Resource estimate for the company’s Natougou gold deposit, in south‐east Burkina Faso.

“The big change is in the upgrade in the Indicated category, which lifts our confidence in the Resource,” Orbis Gold managing director Peter Spiers told The Resources Roadhouse at Diggers & Dealers.

“The Indicated Resource has gone from 200,000 ounces up six fold to 1.2 million, fantastically high grade 5.1 grams per tonne so that really underpins the start-up of the mine and the initial years of high gold output from the mine.”

The Natougou Mineral Resource now totals 18 million tonnes at 3.4 grams per tonne gold for 2 million ounces of contained gold (at a 0.5g/t gold lower cut‐off grade).

The estimate includes an Indicated Resource component of 7.1 million tonnes at 5.1 grams per tonne for 1.2 million ounces of gold.

 

Summary Natougou Mineral Resource. Source: Company announcement

 

Spiers said it was important to take note of the increase in the ounces, but that it was also important to take note of the grade of the deposit.

“Grade is King and that will be what drives this project forward,” he said.

“The increased ounces is nice – and that should extend through to an increase in mine life.”

Orbis outlined the updated resource estimate includes an increase in the proportion of near‐surface Indicated Mineral Resource category material.

The company considers this to indicate potential to define a revised mine plan with a lower up‐front waste pre‐strip and lower life‐of‐mine strip ratio relative to that defined in the current development Scoping Study.

“That’s really about revising the pit,” Spiers explained.

“There is potential there to lower the strip ratio and potential to lower the upfront pre-strip as the initial mine design was constrained by having a small part of the resource in the indicated category.

“So we are looking at a refreshed set of numbers – it’s difficult to stand here now and guess what they may be – but that is what is coming down the pipeline.”

Spiers said another important aspect of the announcement is that the company is now able to set a finish date-range for the feasibility study, which is now mid-2015.

“That can sound a long way away, but it is only 10 months, at which time we will be making a development decision on the project,” he said.

“We are starting to look and feel more like a developer now than an explorer.”

Email: info@orbisgold.com

Website: www.orbisgold.com