Amara Mining Regulatory News (AMA)

30 Sep 2008 07:00



Cluff Gold plc

("Cluff" or the "Company")

Operational update 

Cluff Gold (AIM-"CLF"), the AIM listed West African gold mining company,  is pleased to announce that its Kalsaka Gold Project ("Kalsaka") in Burkina Faso, has commenced leaching operations on some 70 000 tonnes of ore now stacked on the leach pads and that encouraging drill results continue to be received from the Baomahun Gold Project (Baomahun"), Sierra Leone. 

The commencement of leaching operations at Kalsaka marks the completion of the construction of two gold projects in two different West African countries which Cluff set as its target at the beginning of this year. 

Highlights:

Kalsaka: (78% effective ownership)

Second gold project to be put into production this year

Spraying of acid on ore on leach pads commenced

Process plant now on twenty-four hour operation 

Baomahun: (100% effective ownership)

Encouraging assay results continue to be encountered in drill holes

Diamond drilling results include: DDH 260 intersected 24 metres grading 4.61g/t Au from 163 metres; DDH 263 intersected 23 metres grading 3.50g/t Au from 0 metres and DDH 264 intersected 29 metres grading 2.81g/t Au from 0 metres

Ores not refractory based on initial metallurgical test work results

Douglas Chikohora, Technical Director of Cluff Gold plc comments, "We are delighted to announce that the construction of our two gold projects has been completed. The encouraging assay results are in line with our objective of continuing to grow the resource base at Baomahun where a twenty five year mining lease has recently been granted as announced by the Company on 17th July 2008."

Kalsaka Gold Mine, Burkina Faso

The spraying of acid on ores has commenced with good percolation on the heaps being reported so far. The processing plant has started operating on a twenty-four hour operation and production is expected to reach an annualised production level of 60,000 Au ounces by the end of this year.

Kalsaka is the second Gold Project that Cluff Gold has put into production this year. The first was its Angovia Gold Mine in Code d'Ivoire.  The two projects are expected to produce 100,000 Au ounces of gold on an annualised basis from 2009. 

Baomahun Gold Project, Sierra Leone

Encouraging assay results, in line with our expectations, continue to be received at Baomahun. Another fourteen holes are yet to be analysed and reported by the laboratory. A resource update is planned as soon as assay results are received from these remaining holes. Initial metallurgical test work results indicate that the ores are not refractory.  

Douglas D Chikohora has reviewed and approved the information contained in this announcement. Douglas D Chikohora, Msc, (MIMMM, CEng) is Technical Director of the Company.

For further information, please contact: 

 Cluff Gold plc

 J.G. Cluff

 Tel: +44 (0) 20 7340 9790

W H Ireland

David Youngman/Katy Mitchell

Tel: +44 (0) 161 832 6644

Farm Street Communications

Simon Robinson

Tel: +44 (0) 7953340107

Notes to Editors:

About Cluff Gold

Cluff Gold plc is focused on the identification, acquisition and development of gold deposits in West Africa that are amenable to open-pit mining and low cost production techniques.

The Company has made significant progress since its admission to AIM in December 2004, increasing gold resources across its projects, expanding the project portfolio and broadening the investor base to an increasingly international audience.

Mt. Yaoure, Cote d'Ivoire

The Mt. Yaoure permit is located 40km northwest of Yamoussoukro, the political capital of Cote d'Ivoire, and covers a surface area of 417km(2) including a 50

km2 mining permit. The licence area includes the Angovia gold mine which operated between 1998 and 2003. The mine reportedly produced over 180,000 ounces of gold during this period by heap leaching some 2 million tonnes of oxide material. The infrastructure in the area is good and includes a hydroelectric dam six kilometres from the Angovia mine site. A measured and indicated JORC resource of 451 000 ounces and an inferred JORC resource of 44 000 ounces has so far been delineated.

Recently, the company announced the commencement of gold production at Angovia at an annualized rate of 40 000 ounces of gold by the end of this year.

Kalsaka, Burkina Faso

Kalsaka is located approximately 150km north west of Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. A measured and indicated JORC resource of 634 000 ounces and inferred JORC resource of 157 000 ounces has been delineated so far. The resource has been demonstrated, by a feasibility study, to be technically amenable to open-pit mining and processing via heap leaching. Water, environmental and mining permits for the project have been granted. The mining permit is valid for twenty years.

Construction has commenced at Kalsaka and commissioning is expected to commence in Q3, 2008 with production estimated to reach 60 000 ounces on an annualized rate by the end of this year.

BAOMAHUN, SIERRA LEONE

The Baomahun Gold Project covers an area of about 137 km2 and is located about 180 kilometres east of Freetown, in the Southern Province of Sierra Leone. The geological setting is similar to the Lake Victoria goldfields in Tanzania.

The Baomahun licence area covers more than 12 kilometres of prospective strike along the Kangari Hills which is composed of Archaean greenstone belt terrain consisting of banded iron formation (BIF) Gold mineralisation in the drilled areas is intimately associated with the BIF and other lithologies in close proximity to the BIF. Accordingly, future exploration and drilling will continue to use the BIF as a marker horizon for auriferous zones along the belt.

A measured and indicated JORC compliant mineral resource of 867,000 ounces of gold (8,933,000 tonnes grading 2.9 g/t Au) and inferred JORC compliant mineral resource of 486,000 ounces of gold (5,083,000 tonnes grading 3.0 g/t Au). A total JORC compliant mineral resource (measured, indicated and inferred) of 1,353,000 ounces of gold (14,016,000 tonnes grading 3.0 g/t Au) has so far been delineated.

On 17 July 2008, the Company announced that the Government of Sierra Leone had granted Baomahun Gold Limited, a 100 per cent owned subsidiary of the Company, a Mining Lease for 25 years over an area of 59.85sq kilometres.

Cluff Gold now holds 100 per cent of the Baomahun Gold Project. Cluff Gold announced on 4 August 2008 that it had acquired the outstanding 40 per cent interest in the project for US$21.8 million which was satisfied by the issue of 12,390,909 ordinary shares in the Company.