The Company is pleased to announce that its Board of
Directors has approved a budget of US$4.1 million for a
deep drilling program at its Buckreef Gold Project in the
Lake Victoria Goldfields of Tanzania.
According to Joseph K Kahama, Chairman and Chief Operating
Officer (Tanzania), "Based on what we've seen from recent
drilling, expectations are high that this major expansion
in drilling activity at Buckreef will not only
significantly boost our resource base but the overall grade
tenor in the Buckreef deposit as well."
"Although the highly favourable results to date remain to
be confirmed and supplemented with additional drilling, the
grades and thicknesses we have been seeing thus far point
to an improvement in open pit economics along with strong
potential for a complimentary underground mining
operation."
The deep drilling program will include approximately 16,600
metres of diamond drilling, with 7,094 metres planned for
the Buckreef Main Zone, 5,517 metres at Buckreef North and
3,000 metres in the Buckreef South Zone. Some of the holes
will be "wedged" to generate multiple intercepts in
prospective areas without having to collar new holes on
surface.
The program has five principal objectives:
To define and expand new deep resource potential to 650m
vertical depth.
-
To upgrade the Inferred Resources to Indicated & Measured
categories while improving the confidence level for this
deep resource potential.
-
To complete any drilling identified recommended by the
PEA.
-
To acquire metallurgical and specific gravity data on the
deep portions of the existing resource.
-
To establish geotechnical & structural information on the
deep Buckreef resource.
The existing gold resource at Buckreef occurs in three
zones covering approximately 1.3km of strike length along
the main Buckreef shear zone. The three zones contained
within this shear structure have been drilled on either 20
or 40m spaced sections.
The Buckreef shear zone is considered to be a highly
disjointed aeromagnetic linear (i.e. a structural feature)
that is common to some of the largest gold mines
inTanzania. Of particular interest within this context is
Buckreef South which appears to be associated with a
magnetic feature west of current drilling that might well
continue southwards to intersect the Rwamagaza Shear Zone
(which hosts the Barrick's Tulawaka gold mine in the far
west) and the Company's New Nyamazama zone where a best
intersection of 14m grading 10g/t gold has been reported.
A sectional analysis of the Buckreef deposit indicates that
the central, higher grade portion of the Buckreef
mineralization plunges to the south-west at approximately
40-45 degrees. Samples for Au assay will be split
with a mechanized core cutter in half with one half to be
sent to the laboratory for geochemical analysis and the
remaining half to be kept in the storage for future
reference and uses. Samples to be assayed will remain under
the control of Company personnel until submitted to SGS
laboratory in Mwanza for 50g fire assay (FA) with AAS
finish (0.01ppm LLD). The average percentage of
recovery core is 95%. Sample intervals of 1m or less but
greater than 0.5m depended on geology. Blanks,
duplicates and standards will be inserted every 20th sample
as part of the QAQC regime. On completion of each
hole, the hole will be surveyed by multi-shot camera at 20m
intervals to the end of hole. All holes will be wood
plugged on completion.
A discussion of the three respective zones follows below:
Buckreef Main Zone
The Buckreef Main Zone dips steeply west (near surface) to
sub vertical over approximately 600m of strike length. Gold
is mostly associated with silica-carbonate-pyrite
alteration in sheared mafic rocks and felsic porphyry, with
the best grades intersected where the alteration package is
intensely strong and brecciated.
Previous down plunge deep drilling of the Main Zone
involved six drill holes. Due to a change in dip
direction from steep west to east at depth, the mineralized
zone was intersected deeper than originally interpreted.
One thing that is readily apparent is that the historical
deep drilling did not adequately test down plunge high
grade potential since most of the historical holes and the
current drilling program on these zones has generally
tested the interval 125m - 200m vertical below surface.
The 2012 deep drilling program is designed to intersect and
delineate interpreted higher grade shoots in the Main zone
deeper shoot area. The proposed drilling will result in an
improved Indicated Resource category and should also
improve the average grade based on results received to date
so far. Drilling at the Main Zone has the potential to add
significantly to the existing resource estimate.
Another benefit of the program is to gain a better
understanding and more confidence in the Buckreef Main Zone
deep resource. The aim of the final outcome of the program
is to increase both revenue and life of mine (LOM).
Buckreef North Zone
The Buckreef North Zone occurs over approximately 380m of
strike length, displays similar grades and strike
continuity to the Main Zone, and has been tested to a
maximum depth of 200m. The North Zone is open at depth and
drilling completed to date suggests potential for more than
one mineralized zone that could facilitate the creation of
a wider open pit configuration at commercial production.
The proposed deep drilling program at Buckreef North will
include six "parent" core holes with a total of 12 daughter
holes (i.e. wedges) to infill the drill gaps and upgrade
the Inferred Resource to the Indicated category. The other
benefit of the drilling program is to gain confidence in
the deep resource at the North Zone.
Buckreef South Zone
The Buckreef South Zone extends over 320m, dips
sub-vertically to the east, and generally lacks grade
continuity from hole to hole, suggesting a local oblique
control that is not well understood at the present time.
Limited deeper drilling of this mineralized zone on two
sections (maximum vertical depth of 100m) has not generally
repeated better grade intersections near surface.
Three deep parent core holes are proposed to test the deep
potential in the South Zone in order to locate higher grade
shoots for evaluation by nine drill holes. Data from this
drilling will allow for a detailed analysis of the
structural controls in the area.
Qualified Person(s)
The Company's Qualified Persons; Phillip Kaniki and Charles
Mnguto, have reviewed and approved the contents of this
news release. Mr. Phillip Kaniki has a Bachelor of Science
degree in Geology from theUniversityofDar es Salaam(1997)
and is a registered scientist with MAusIMM (Reg. No
221963). Mr. Charles Mnguto has a Bachelor of Science
degree in Geology (Hons) from theUniversityofDar es
Salaam(1995) and is a registered scientist with MAusIMM
(Reg. No 307793).
Respectfully Submitted,
Joseph Kahama
Chairman and Chief Operating Officer (Tanzania)
For further information, please contact Investor Relations
at 1-800-811-3855
Visit our website: www.TanzanianRoyalty.com
The Toronto Stock Exchange and NYSE Amex Equities
have not reviewed and do not accept responsibility for the
adequacy or accuracy of this release
Cautionary Note to U.S. Investors - The United States
Securities and Exchange Commission limits disclosure for
U.S. reporting purposes to mineral deposits that a company
can economically and legally extract or produce. We use
certain terms on this news release, such as "reserves",
"resources", "geologic resources", "proven", "probable",
"measured", "indicated", or "inferred" which may not be
consistent with the reserve definitions established by the
SEC. U.S. Investors are urged to consider closely the
disclosure in our SEC filings. You can review and
obtain copies of these filings from the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml
This news release contains certain forward-looking
statements and forward-looking information. All statements,
other than statements of historical fact, included herein
are forward-looking statements and forward-looking
information that involve various risks and uncertainties.
There can be no assurance that such statements will prove
to be accurate, and actual results and future events could
differ materially from those anticipated in such
statements. Important factors that could cause actual
results to differ materially from the Company's
expectations are disclosed in the Company's documents filed
from time-to-time with theBritish
Columbia,AlbertaandOntarioprovincial securities regulatory
authorities.
Certain information presented in this release may
constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning
of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995. Such forward-looking statements are based on numerous
assumptions, and involve known and unknown risks,
uncertainties and other factors, including risks inherent
in mineral exploration and development, which may cause the
actual results, performance, or achievements of the Company
to be materially different from any projected future
results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied
by such forward-looking statements. Investors are referred
to our description of the risk factors affecting the
Company, as contained in our SEC filings, including our
annual report on Form 20-F and Registration Statement on
Form F-10, as amended, for more information concerning
these risks, uncertainties, and other factors.