OceanaGold extends drilling programme

Tuesday 7th December 2010

Gold prospector OceanaGold is extending drilling at its Reefton mine on the West Coast after pleasing results from its exploration programme.

The open cut mine in Victoria Forest Park consists of four mines: Globe Progress, General Gordon, Empress and Souvenir. The company was also exploring another nearby site, the Fraternal prospect, where drilling is due to start in January.

OceanaGold hoped to extend its Globe Progress mine, by either open cast or underground mining, and the open cast Souvenir mine was also being redesigned to increase its reserve after encouraging drilling results.

"The team was focused early in the year on identifying priority targets and these drill results are a strong follow-on to this work," executive chairman Jim Askew said.

The company had also tested areas within 4km of the processing plant, and would drill them in the first half of next year. More testing was being done around the region.

Shares in OceanaGold were up 19c at $4.54 by mid-afternoon, having traded between $1.97 and $5.41 in the last year.

NZPA

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