SOUTH SURREY, British Columbia, Sep 06, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Tanzanian Royalty is pleased to announce that Venmyn Independent Projects (Pty) Limited, a subsidiary of Venmyn Rand (Pty) Limited of South Africa, has been awarded a contract to complete a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) for the Company's Buckreef Gold Project in Tanzania.
Buckreef is an advanced stage gold project with NI-43-101 compliant gold resources at a 0.5 g/t cutoff grade in the following categories: Measured, 5.176 million tonnes grading 2.05 g/t (341,000 oz); Indicated, 24.97 million tonnes averaging 1.19 g/t (954,000 oz); Inferred, 17.173 million tonnes grading 1.51 g/t (835,000 oz).
The time-sensitive PEA will address the economic viability of the Buckreef project as a prerequisite for undertaking a Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS). The information generated by this preliminary economic study is vital to the strategic planning of the DFS which the Company expects will commence immediately after completion of the PEA.
The key components in the PEA include the following: a thorough review of the historic exploration and resource estimating process followed by the determination of mineral reserves; the identification of stakeholders for the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA); a mining methodology and preliminary mine design study; a review of historic metallurgical test work and, if deemed necessary, the development of a high level process plant design with process flow diagrams and mass balance calculations; a preliminary estimate of capital and operating expenditures for the Buckreef Gold Project; an independent valuation and Discounted Cash Flow analysis of the project based on international standards; and lastly an independent National Instrument compliant 43-101 Technical Report on the results of the PEA, which would be suitable for filing with regulatory authorities.
According to Joseph K. Kahama, Chairman and Chief Operating Officer (Tanzania), "We are pleased that Venmyn has taken on this important task which is set to occur during a period of intense activity at Buckreef on several fronts."
"At the present time, we have a 58-hole drill program under way on our Eastern Porphyry Prospect and this will be followed by a diamond drilling program on our Main Buckreef Prospect. This particular program is designed to investigate the possible down-dip extension of the high grade gold shoots below the previously established open pit design prepared by IAMGOLD a few years ago," he pointed out.
"Negotiations are under way to bring additional drills to the Buckreef Project given the value we can add to the project and the company by discovering new resources at current gold prices," he emphasized.
James E. Sinclair, President and CEO, noted that exploration data received from the ongoing drill programs at Buckreef will be integrated into the PEA and subsequent DFS. In addition, Sinclair said that "an in-house assessment confirms the economic benefits of establishing additional resources at Buckreef through exploration at this time."
"We have placed a major emphasis on growing our resource base which would allow us to consider new operating parameters including higher production rates that under normal circumstances would generate lower unit production costs," he added.
The Company is well financed to undertake its corporate objectives in the coming months, having raised $30 million dollars in August on a bought deal basis.
Qualified Person
The Company's Qualified Person, Mr. Peter Zizhou, supervised the preparation of the technical information and has approved the contents of this news release. Mr. Zizhou is the Exploration Manager of Tanzanian Royalty Exploration Corporation Limited. He has a Master of Science (Exploration Geology) degree from the University of Zimbabwe (2000) and is a registered scientist with SACNASP (Reg. No. 400028/08).
Respectfully submitted,
Joseph Kahama
