Tanzanian Royalty has reported that it has received impressive assay results from the ongoing diamond and reverse circulation (RC) drilling programs on the Eastern Porphyry Prospect at its Buckreef Gold Project in the Lake Victoria goldfields of Tanzania.
The drilling programs commenced in September 2011.
“existence of multiple gold deposits within the confines of the broader Buckreef project area suggests a high probability of making additional discoveries that are certain to boost the economic viability of this important gold project.”
According to Joseph K. Kahama, Chairman and Chief Operating Officer, "The drill program has served to verify the significance of the results obtained by previous operators including IAMGOLD which were not in the public domain but were discovered during our Buckreef data review process."
"The latest drill results not only support and enhance the earlier drill programs, they confirm the existence of a fifth gold zone at Buckreef along with the potential to enhance our production expectations for this development stage gold project."
The Buckreef Project consists of four prospects, namely the historic Buckreef Gold Mine at the western limit of the project area, the Tembo and Bingwa prospects, and the Buziba prospect 20km to the east. The Eastern Porphyry prospect is located some 800m in the footwall of the Main Zone of the historic Buckreef mine which operated briefly as an underground gold producer.
Buckreef contains National Instrument 43-101 compliant gold resources at a 0.5 g/t cutoff grade in the following categories: Measured, 5.176 million tonnes grading 2.05 g/t (341,000 oz); Indicated, 24.97 million tonnes averaging 1.19 t/g (954,000 oz); Inferred, 17.173 million tonnes grading 1.51 g/t (835,000 oz).
The diamond core drilling program has so far seen the completion of four drill-holes aggregating 520m, while 17 holes aggregating 1,183m have been completed in the RC drilling program.
Down-the-hole lithological sequences include a series of mafic basaltic rock units alternating with dolerite and a series of narrow felsic porphyry units with pronounced shearing and alterations of the mafic packages at the contacts with the felsic porphyry units. Mineralization is localized within the sheared, quartz-carbonate-pyrite altered zones.
The objective of the diamond drilling component in the program was to determine the geological and structural framework of the East Porphyry prospect while the RC drilling program was aimed at establishing the strike and down-dip continuity of mineralization identified in previous drill programs.
James E. Sinclair, President and CEO of Tanzanian Royalty, states that the "existence of multiple gold deposits within the confines of the broader Buckreef project area suggests a high probability of making additional discoveries that are certain to boost the economic viability of this important gold project."
The Company plans an aggressive work program in 2012 that will include an exploration budget for diamond and RC drilling of approximately $2 million. In addition, more funding has been approved for both a Pre-feasibility and a Definitive Feasibility Study in 2012. The Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) for Buckreef is now scheduled for completion in January 2012.
Tanzanian Royalty is well financed and has approximately $30 million in cash. This will allow for the completion of a full feasibility study, leaving excess capital available for the time the Company begins debt financing negotiations with international lenders for mine development.
Exploration Plans
The Company intends to continue the resource definition and upgrade drilling program at the Buckreef Project in the coming months including the further investigation of the down dip potential in the established Buckreef Main Reef and other gold zones. The diamond drilling program in the East Porphyry target area will support the completion of a comprehensive structural analysis that will guide future exploration programs. In addition to routine geological work, the Company intends to complete large diameter metallurgical test holes at the Bingwa and Tembo prospects for mineral resource upgrading as part of the feasibility study.
Analysis
Samples from the RC and diamond drill-holes were submitted to SGS Lab in Mwanza for 50g fire assay (FA) with AAS finish (0.01ppm LLD). Duplicates and Standards were inserted in the sample stream approximately every 20 samples. The average percentage of recovery core is 95%. Core sampling was done on 1m intervals with the core cut in half lengthwise using a diamond core cutter. Sample intervals of 1m or less but greater than 0.5m depended on geology. The planning, execution and monitoring of quality control programs at the Buckreef Gold project are under the supervision of Messrs. Charles Mnguto and Phillip Kaniki who are both registered Professional Geologists. Charles is the Head of Geology while Phillip is the Geology Resource Manager for Tanzanian Royalty