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Kevin Bullock, President and CEO of Volta Resources
Your Company had another positive year in 2010!
Volta continued its aggressive plans at its flagship Kiaka Gold Project in southern Burkina Faso. A total of $40,460,966 was raised in 2010 through a series of equity financings at increasing issue prices. This allowed your Company to achieve its goal of announcing a maiden NI 43-101 resource statement in the main area of the Kiaka Main Zone ("KMZ"). Indicated resources were pegged at 41,250,000 tonnes grading 1.04 grams per tonne (g/t) of gold yielding 1,384,000 ounces of gold and Inferred resources stood at 15,900,000 tonnes grading 0.90 g/t of gold yielding 380,000 ounces of gold, all at a very conservative 0.60 g/t Au cut-off. That was quite a start for a deposit that has only been drilled to a vertical depth of 200 metres!
Since the maiden resource was announced, Volta has embarked on another, even more aggressive, drilling campaign in an attempt to issue an updated NI 43-101 resource statement by the end of June 2011. The program includes infill drilling and extensional drilling on strike and down to a minimum 300 metre vertical depth. I am happy to report that, at mid March 2011, we had completed half of the anticipated 50,000 metre campaign. It is Volta's intent to commence a pre-feasibility study in the second half of 2011. Numerous environmental and metallurgical programs have been carried out, all showing positive signs. No "red flags" were raised during the Social and Environmental scans and the metallurgy has indicated that recoveries are expected to be well in excess of 90% utilizing conventional processing techniques.
There is still demonstrable upside at Kiaka. Induced polarization (IP) gradient array and ground magnetic geophysical surveys have identified several new geophysical anomalies with similar characteristics as the main Kiaka zone. These will be drill tested in the near future. The concession as a whole has five other regional targets to be evaluated.
The Company also carried out programs on its wholly-owned Gaoua projects. Volta completed detailed geochemical auger drilling between the Dienemera and Gongondy deposits and west of Gongondy, where regolith, comprising transported laterite and alluvium, may have masked the geochemical response produced by traditional soil sampling programs. The program identified a large copper-gold anomaly between the Dienemera and Gongondy deposits. A follow-up scout RC drilling program in this area confirmed a new copper porphyry discovery at Bousserra. The drilling program also extended the potential to the south and west of the existing Gongondy deposit. In addition, a significant zone of gold mineralization which is not associated with any significant copper mineralization has been encountered with two intersections grading 5m @ 13.8 g/t Au and 5m @ 11.1 g/t Au.
Soil sampling and geophysics undertaken on the SW corner of the Danyoro permit (part of the Gaoua Project) defined an open-ended 4km gold anomaly at Nassara. Trenching over the anomaly encountered a zone of 41m @ 1,89 g/t Au, including 20.5m @ 3.56 g/t gold. An RC drilling program comprising 4 holes for 408 metres included intersections of 15m @ 4.45g/t gold, 5m @ 3.96 g/t gold, and 7m @ 1.53 g/t gold, confirmed a significant new gold zone at Nassara.
An extensive auger drilling program commenced in January 2010 at the Titao gold project to test structural targets defined from the interpretation of remote sensing and high resolution helicopter-borne geophysics flown by the Company in 2008. Significantly, the program has identified a large gold anomaly on the northernmost tested target, Toulfe, where gold results for samples taken in saprolite, at the base of the holes, regularly exceed 0.1 g/t gold with a peak of 2.18 g/t gold.
The Company acquired a parcel of land in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, on which to build new administrative offices for its Burkina Faso operations, demonstrating its commitment and confidence in the country and its projects.
2011 should prove to be a very exciting year with a drilling budget approved at 130,000 metres. This will generate an enormous amount of data and improve the understanding of all of our active projects. We will be able to issue an updated resource for the Kiaka Gold Project which will allow us to embark on a pre-feasibility study. All of this working aggressively towards a development decision at Kiaka Gold Project. We also continue to keep our quality pipeline of projects, including new discoveries, moving forward.
I would like to thank all of the management and employees of Volta and its subsidiaries for a truly remarkable 2010 as well as our directors who have provided invaluable guidance through our transition. My thanks also go out to the many shareholders who have been very supportive of our programs leading to our success.
(President's Message updated annually in April)
Sincerely,
Kevin Bullock
President and CEO |
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