Sarama resources completes 35,000m RC and 11,000m diamond drill programs at its South Houndé Project in Burkina Faso

Thursday, Jul 05, 2012

PERTH, Western Australia, July 4, 2012 /CNW/ - Sarama Resources Limited ("Sarama" or the "Company") is pleased to report that it has concluded its planned, and significantly expanded, drill programs in Burkina Faso, West Africa.

The bulk of the drilling was undertaken in the first half of 2012 and was
focussed on the Company's South Houndé Project in the south-west of Burkina Faso where it holds exploration rights to approximately 1,600km² of prospective ground on the Houndé and Boromo greenstone belts.

Sarama commenced an 11,000m reverse-circulation ("RC") drill program on the Tankoro permit in January 2012, which was expanded to 24,000m following excellent results returned early in the program.  The additional drilling focused on infill and extensional targets at the MM Prospect, as well as scout drilling in other areas within the Tankoro Structural Corridor.  A further 11,000m of RC scout drilling was undertaken on other permits within the South Houndé Project that contain kilometre-scale gold-in-soil anomalies.

Following the success of the RC drill program, a diamond drill rig was mobilised in February 2012 for an initial 2,800m program at the MM Prospect.  The scope of this program was increased to 11,000m following the return of excellent initial results.

In addition, a 14,000m rotary-air-blast ("RAB") drill program was completed across numerous gold-in-soil anomalies within a 5km radius of the MM Prospect.

Sarama's President and CEO, Andrew Dinning commented:

"We are very pleased to have accomplished such a large volume of work this season with our Burkina Faso team.  In addition to the drilling activity, we have completed extensive soil geochemistry surveys across our portfolio of exploration properties in Burkina Faso and have numerous anomalies that require further investigation as a result.  We look forward to receiving the remaining drill assays in the coming months in order to plan our next round of exploration activities at the South Houndé Project."

Although the Company is using four independently operated assay laboratories in West Africa to process the samples, there is a backlog of approximately 3,000 diamond drill core samples, 6,000 RC samples and 5,000 RAB samples are yet to be assayed, which is an industry-wide issue.

Sarama has been able to manage its operations around this persistent backlog, and will continue to carefully monitor the throughput of these laboratories.

The backlog is expected to reduce steadily over the coming months and the Company will provide updates as and when results come to hand.

About Sarama Resources Ltd

Sarama Resources Ltd is a Canadian company with a focus on the exploration and development of gold deposits in West Africa.  The board of directors and management team, a majority of whom are founders of the Company, are seasoned esource industry professionals with extensive experience in the exploration and evelopment of world-class gold projects in Africa.

SOURCE Sarama Resources Limited