Gowest Gold boosts resources at Frankfield East with further potential to increase

Canadian junior explorer Gowest Gold (CVE:GWA)(OTCBB:GWSAF) said Wednesday that it has significantly increased its resources at its Frankfield East gold deposit in Timmins, Ontario following hugely successful drilling campaigns in the last year.
The updated NI 43-101 compliant resource, completed by ACA Howe International, contains 348,000 ounces of gold in the indicated category, or 1.6 million tonnes at a grade of 6.68 g/t gold, and 838,900 ounces of gold in the inferred category, or 4.3 million tonnes at a grade of 6.01 g/t gold. The cut-off grade applied was 3.0 g/t gold.
This compares with an initial inferred resource of 2.4 million tonnes averaging 6.5 g/t gold, for 510,000 ounces.
"We are extremely pleased to quantify the substantial increases in the gold resource at the Frankfield East Deposit resulting from our 2010/11 drilling campaigns," said president and CEO Greg Romain.
The Toronto-based company said that as the deposit remains open and unexplored at depth, it is confident that the ongoing drilling program, through until 2012, will continue to find additional gold.
Indeed, this has worked quite well for the company so far. In its 2010-2011 drilling campaign, Gowest applied a two-pronged strategy to drilling at the site, including infill drilling within the previously defined resource area, and expanding mineralization outside of the resource area - which obviously proved quite successful.
As of March, the mineralized envelope of 750 metres along strike at surface by 920 metres at depth was two to three times the size of the initial mineralized zone, which contained inferred resources of 510,000 ounces.
Some highlights of the drilling included 5.1 metres of 4.1 g/t gold, including 2.4 metres of 7.1 g/t gold in hole GW10-96, drilled to a vertical depth of 920 metres.
In addition, in February, the company scored bonanza grade gold with drill hole GW10-106, which cut 4.7 metres averaging 13.4 g/t gold, including 1.5 metres of a whopping 37 g/t gold.
The updated resource was based on data from 201 diamond drill holes, Gowest said.
To demonstrate the potential of the Frankfield East deposit to withstand fluctuations in gold prices, the company conducted a sensitivity analysis, estimating a resource at different cut-off grades. At a cut-off grade of 1.5 g/t gold, indicated resources are estimated at 422,400 contained gold ounces, or 2.7 million tonnes at a grade of 4.91 g/t gold, while inferred resources total 999,000 ounces, or 6.9 million tonnes at a grade of 4.53 g/t gold.
The average gold grade of the deposit has been changed, but with relatively limited impact on the overall deposit resources.
"We are very encouraged by the sensitivity analysis completed which clearly demonstrates the robust nature of the deposit and the fact that the majority of the ounces are contained within high- grade structures, that minimize potential impacts from fluctuations in gold prices," addded Romain.
"It is becoming increasingly apparent that the Frankfield East deposit has the characteristics of a multi-million ounce gold deposit."
Engineering studies are continuing at the property, and the company expects that the strong economics of the project will further be demonstrated in a preliminary economic study - expected in the fall.
The company added in its statement that as part of its ongoing metallurgical test program at Frankfield East, it is looking into a potential ore sorting technique that would allow for gold to be mined using more cost-effective bulk mining methods, as low grade waste material would be rejected prior to further processing.
This method, Gowest said, would allow for the deposit to be mined at a lower cut-off grade, thereby boosting the size of the overall resources.
Gowest is also working on expanding its land package in the prolific Timmins mining camp, as it recently announced acquisitions of properties located adjacent to Frankfield East.