First drill results from Namaga Project in Niger

Intersects 22m grading 2.4 g/t and 10m grading 4.9g/t

Orezone Resources Inc. (OZN:TSX, AMEX) reports that assay results have been received from a rotary air blast (“RAB”) and reverse circulation (“RC”) drilling program carried out on the 1148 km2 Namaga permit in Niger, West Africa. The Namaga permit, located in the Tera greenstone belt in Western Niger, has been optioned from Greencastle Resources (VGN:TSXV) and surrounds Koma Bangou, the country’s largest artisanal mining site. The first phase of drilling consisted of 4,268m of RAB and 2,000m of RC drilling to test targets previously identified by Ashanti Goldfields through soil geochemistry, mapping and trenching and by Orezone through a recent geophysical survey. The best results have come from two drill fences that tested a two km-long quartz rubble geochemical anomaly in the Block 3 target area, located 20km west of Koma Bangou. Hole B3B0154 intersected 10m grading 4.86g/t starting at 32m downhole, while the adjacent hole B3B0155 intersected 22m at 2.40g/t starting at 10m downhole. (Note: lengths are downhole lengths. Further information is needed to determine true widths) Please see table of significant results at www.orezone.com/site/properties/namagatable.asp

The 2000 km² Kossa Property is located immediately adjacent to the Orezone/Gold Fields Limited Essakane Project with the two properties being separated by the border between Burkina Faso and Niger.  A number of major target areas have been identified on Kossa based on soil geochemistry, geophysics, geological mapping and artisanal workings.

Orezone Resources optioned the Namaga and Koyria properties from Greencastle in January of this year (see press release January 23, 2006) and immediately commenced evaluating their gold potential. Several line kilometres of induced polarization (“IP”) grids were run across the most prospective ground on both properties. Drilling on the Namaga permit commenced in May this year and two target areas were drilled before the onset of the rainy season (July to Sept). It is anticipated that drilling will commence on the Koyria permit, located in the Sirba greenstone belt and along strike from Semafo’s (SMF:TSX) Samira Hill Mine, after the rainy season this year.

Mr. Ron Little, President & CEO stated: “Results from the first pass regional exploration program are very encouraging for us and our partners and we intend to carry out a follow up program at Namaga this fall.”

The latest results are part of an ongoing $2.3 million exploration program in Niger covering the Namaga and Koyria permits and Orezone’s 100% owned Kossa permit. Orezone can earn a 50% interest in the Namaga and Koyria permits by spending $1 million on each property over three years and can increase its interest to 75% by completing a Bankable Feasibility Study.  

Drilling on the Namaga property was supervised by Dr. Pascal Marquis, VP Exploration and Mr. Jeff Ackert, VP Technical Services, P.Geo., who is a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the technical information in this release. Samples were collected at a minimum of every 1m down the hole and 2m composite samples were analyzed using a 2kg bottle roll cyanide leach at the Abilab Laboratory in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, an internationally recognized laboratory. A minimum of 10% of the samples are for QA/QC, which includes random head assays, duplicates, standards and blanks, as well as tail assays on samples that returned at least 0.5 g/t.

Orezone is an explorer and emerging gold producer that has an exploration permit for Essakane, the largest gold deposit in Burkina Faso, West Africa, where partner Gold Fields Limited is earning a 60 per cent interest by completing a bankable feasibility study. Orezone also has a pipeline of promising projects, all located in politically stable areas of West Africa which is one of the world’s fastest growing gold producing regions. Orezone’s mission is to create wealth by discovering and developing the earth’s resources in an efficient and responsible manner.

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