Goldrush Resources announces 8,890m autumn drill program to expand Ronguen

Goldrush Resources (CVE:GOD) reported on Tuesday the start a fall drill program to expand its 249,000 ounce-Ronguen gold deposit in Burkina Faso, West Africa.

The 8,890 drill program consists of 1,725 metres of core drilling in 15 holes, and 7,165 metres of reverse circulation drilling in 94 holes.

In May 2008, the deposit was estimated to host an inferred resource of 5.9 million tonnes, at a grade of 1.31 grams per tonne (g/t) of gold, containing 249,000 ounces of gold.

Since that time, the West Africa-focused company has drilled 2,443 metres of core drilling, 7,661 metres of reverse circulation drilling, 315 metres of trenching, and around 7,300 metres of rotary air blast drilling. This, combined with the new fall program announced today, will form the basis for a new resource estimate, and an economic report on the project.

"Our experienced geological team is determined to move the Ronguen project towards a production decision,” said Chief Executive, Len Brownlie.

"While Goldrush is first and foremost a gold exploration company, management is very motivated to leverage the current gold price and uniform nature of the oxide resource at Ronguen into a production scenario that could provide significant cash flow, and finance future exploration programs without the need for additional shareholder dilution.”

The company’s goal for the new fall program is to advance gold mineralization from the inferred to the indicated category and to expand the deposit through exploratory drilling on the east, north and west margins of the deposit.

Further, Goldrush is looking to follow-up on previous intersections of 2.14 g/t gold over four metres from drill hole KGRR011-135, as well as 7.72 g/t gold over six metres in drill hole KGRB-007-151B, about 430 metres west of the currently-defined western limit of the deposit.

Additionally, selected targets on the company's other high-priority exploration permits will be drilled, including at least 1,000 metres of core drilling on the company's Salbo permit, where shallow, rotary air blast drilling earlier this year intersected 1.74 g/t gold over eight metres in hole SLBB11-023 and 2.12 g/t gold over six metres in hole SLBB11-030.

Development of a gold resource at Salbo, which is located less than 40 kilometres south of Ronguen, would likely enhance the viability of an operation at Ronguen, Goldrush said in a statement.

SRK Consulting, which completed the current resource estimate, has completed its preliminary fieldwork and will provide a resource update following the completion of the autumn drill program at Ronguen.

Mineralized samples of the deposit have been selected for preliminary metallurgical testing, and the company said discussions are already underway with several consulting companies to provide an environmental scoping study for the Ronguen deposit.

The impetus behind this work is to suss-out the economic viability of a mining project at Ronguen, consisting of a conventional open pit mine, providing near-surface oxide gold mineralization that is delivered to an onsite processing facility.

Goldrush plans to finish a preliminary feasibility study prior to the end of second-quarter 2012, followed by a full feasibility study.