"Drilling to date at P17S continues to be very successful as demonstrated by excellent continuity of the gold mineralization, which remains open along trend and at depth, including extensions outside of the current resource model," the company's senior vice president of exploration Pascal Marquis said.
"I am also very encouraged by the drilling results at the P17 zone, which had not been drilled since 2013. Current results have confirmed that P17 is now open to the north and at depth and will warrant further drilling," Marquis said.
He noted that a third drill rig has been mobilized to accelerate the ongoing programme.
Highlights from the P17S drilling included:
- 16.00 metres of 1.66g/t Au from 48 metres
- 14.70 metres of 2.13g/t Au from 190 metres
- 25.00 metres of 1.63g/t Au from 83 metres
- 9.25 metres of 3.18g/t Au from 294.30 metres
- 30.00 metres of 2.12g/t Au from 99 metres including 2.00 metres of 8.80g/t Au
- 30.00 metres of 1.63g/t Au from 124 metres including 10.00 metres of 2.98g/t Au from 124 metres and 5.00 metres of 2.26g/t Au from 166 metres
Highlights from the P17 drilling included:
- 8.80 metres of 4.34g/t Au from 80.20 metres
- 8.00 metres of 2.36g/t Au from 59 metres
- 22.00 metres of 1.11g/t Au from 124 metres including 5.00 metres of 2.29g/t Au from 124 metres
- 57.00 metres of 1.01g/t Au from 34 metres including 14.00 metres of 1.57g/t Au from 54 metres and 5.00 metres of 2.50g/t Au from 86 metres
Canaccord Genuity Capital Markets analyst Kevin MacKenzie said the results were positive and that Orezone is making "great" progress in advancing the project.
"Overall, we expect that increasingly targeted high-grade vectoring will serve to increase the corridor's overall grade, while further bolstering the project's well-established 6 million ounce resource base," he said.
"We expect that Orezone will continue to re-rate as it achieves both first gold and commercial production milestones in the coming quarters," he said.
A 2019 feasibility study forecasted annual gold production of 118,000oz over a thirteen-plus year mine life at an all-in sustaining cost of US$730/oz with an after-tax payback period of 2.5 years at an assumed gold price of $1,300/oz.
Orezone's share price on the Toronto Stock Exchange was quoted as C$1.39 (US$1.07) on May 8, having dropped 3% from the previous session. The company has a market capitalization of C$452.57.
