Positive Drill Results From the Northern Half of Bombore Gold Project

OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - April 2, 2012) - Orezone Gold Corporation (TSX:ORE) is pleased to announce additional positive oxide and sulphide drill results from the recently completed 215,000 m infill and expansion drill program at its 100% owned Bomboré Gold Project in Burkina Faso, West Africa. Results include 146 reverse circulation (RC) holes (8,786 m) and 83 diamond drill (DD) core holes (13,163 m) from the northern portion of the 11 km long Bomboré resource (see Table 3. below). The majority of these core results are from the northern P8P9 area which comprises a significant portion of the 2010 resource. The remaining 35,000 m of results are expected in May and a full NI 43-101 compliant resource update will be released at the end of June.

"These results confirm the more robust nature of the P8P9 area with respect to continuity, widths and grades that occurs to depths of 120 m, the current average depth drilling," said Ron Little, CEO for Orezone. "This further highlights the potential to significantly expand and upgrade the Bomboré resource and improve the grade and preliminary economics of the project announced in June 2011."

Resource Definition Drilling

Orezone has completed 115,423 m of new RC drilling and 101,317 m of new core drilling on Bomboré. Over 92,000 m of RC results and 82,000 of core results have been received, including 100% of the results from the southern portion of the project for which resource modeling is already in progress. Further expansion and exploration drilling will continue during the second quarter in the southern portion of the project with two core rigs and Orezone's own RC rig, with a focus on the Siga South area; those results are expected during the third quarter.

Regional Exploration

Reconnaissance mapping and prospecting is ongoing with auger drilling to commence this month on the new Toéyoko permit and also on Bomboré I permit new oxide targets; those results are expected during the third quarter.

Table 1. Cumulative Current Program Results Reported to Date

Current Program Results Reported to Date					Average Grade
Zone	Holes	meters	% Complete		Uncut (g/t)	Cut(1) (g/t)
CFU - RC	9	582	7	%	1.22	1.13
CFU - DD	4	653	17	%	1.17	1.09
Maga - RC	142	8,962	41	%	1.22	1.13
Maga - DD	59	8,872	44	%	1.17	1.09
P8P9 - RC	613	39,400	99	%	1.20	1.03
P8P9 - DD	159	25,781	93	%	1.20	0.99
North - RC	764	48,944	68	%	1.20	1.05
North - DD	222	35,306	67	%	1.20	1.02
P11 - RC	239	12,517	100	%	1.02	0.97
P11- DD	75	10,878	100	%	1.06	0.96
Siga E - RC	182	9,893	100	%	1.05	0.96
Siga E - DD	78	11,354	100	%	1.27	1.06
Siga W - RC	146	7,401	100	%	0.92	0.88
Siga W - DD	74	10,450	100	%	0.90	0.87
Siga S - RC	208	10,517	100	%	2.20	0.97
Siga S - DD	60	9,619	100	%	1.08	1.01
South - RC	775	40,328	100	%	1.45	0.95
South- DD	287	42,301	100	%	1.07	0.97
P17 N - RC	4	201	100	%	0.98	0.98
P17 N - DD	0	0	100	%
P17 - RC	25	1,227	100	%	2.24	1.86
P17 - DD	23	2,879	100	%	1.50	1.38
P16 - RC	29	1,544	100	%	1.36	1.30
P16 - DD	16	1,983	58	%	3.12	1.97
SE - RC	58	2,972	100	%	1.63	1.46
SE - DD	39	4,862	72	%	2.31	1.67
All - RC	1,597	92,244	80	%	1.32	1.03
All - DD	548	82,468	81	%	1.18	1.03

(1)	Weighted average grade of individual assays, cut to 5 g/t, that occur both in and outside the 2010 Whittle pit shells

Table 2. Breakdown of Drilling Meterage for this Release

Zone	Diamond Drill		Reverse Circulation
	# of holes	meters	# of holes	meters
CFU	0	0	9	582
Maga	9	1,171	92	5,507
P8P9	74	11,993	45	2,697
P17	0	0	0	0
P16	0	0	0	0
Siga S	0	0	0	0
Siga W	0	0	0	0
Siga E	0	0	0	0
P11	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	83	13,019	146	8,786

Table 3. Highlights of Diamond Drill Hole Results for this Release

(Includes holes previously reported for which the final total assay results are now available)

			From	To	Length	Uncut Grade(2)	Cut Grade(3)	Total
Zone	Section	Hole #	(m)	(m)	(m)	(g/t)	(g/t)	Assay(4)
P8P9	2000	BBD0588	85.00	92.00	7.00	1.46	1.46
P8P9	1950	BBD0543	38.50	46.00	7.50	2.47	2.47
P8P9	1950	BBD0543	72.00	85.00	13.00	5.12	1.12
P8P9	1950	BBD0543	104.00	143.00	39.00	1.12	1.12
P8P9	1950	BBD0544	78.00	82.00	4.00	5.21	2.53	Pending
P8P9	1950	BBD0544	159.00	166.00	7.00	1.61	1.61	Pending
P8P9	1950	BBD0544	187.00	214.00	27.00	0.98	0.98	Pending
P8P9	1950	BBD0545	121.00	129.00	8.00	4.30	1.95	Pending
P8P9	1900	BBD0609	118.00	123.00	5.00	2.73	2.22
P8P9	1900	BBD0611	129.00	165.00	36.00	1.21	1.21
P8P9	1900	BBD0612	78.00	99.00	21.00	1.66	1.50	Pending
P8P9	1900	BBD0615	127.00	136.00	9.00	1.87	1.87	Pending
P8P9	1850	BBD0500	53.00	65.00	12.00	1.09	1.02
P8P9	1850	BBD0701	149.00	164.00	15.00	1.30	1.30
P8P9	1800	BBD0537	100.00	108.00	8.00	1.27	1.27
P8P9	1800	BBD0537	113.00	123.00	10.00	1.42	1.42
P8P9	1800	BBD0538	35.50	48.50	13.00	1.42	1.42
P8P9	1800	BBD0538	141.00	159.00	18.00	0.88	0.88
P8P9	1800	BBD0539	0.00	6.00	6.00	3.23	3.02
P8P9	1750	BBD0582	85.00	101.00	16.00	0.79	0.79
P8P9	1750	BBD0656	72.00	94.00	22.00	1.23	1.23
P8P9	1750	BBD0656	97.00	103.00	6.00	2.12	2.12
P8P9	1750	BBD0657	37.00	56.00	19.00	2.55	2.09
P8P9	1750	BBD0658	129.00	145.00	16.00	1.04	0.97
P8P9	1700	BBD0581	50.00	67.00	17.00	1.91	1.83
P8P9	1700	BBD0584	101.00	115.00	14.00	2.03	1.94
P8P9	1700	BBD0584	134.00	143.00	9.00	1.84	1.29
P8P9	1700	BBD0584	161.00	175.00	14.00	1.05	0.87
P8P9	1700	BBD0585	147.00	160.00	13.00	1.14	1.14
P8P9	1700	BBD0607	118.00	132.00	14.00	0.82	0.82	Pending
P8P9	1650	BBD0530	26.00	34.00	8.00	1.54	1.54
P8P9	1650	BBD0533	3.00	16.00	13.00	1.26	1.06
P8P9	1650	BBD0533	55.00	70.00	15.00	0.75	0.75
P8P9	1650	BBD0533	92.00	98.00	6.00	1.69	1.69
P8P9	1650	BBD0534	85.50	91.50	6.00	3.09	3.09
P8P9	1650	BBD0534	211.00	220.00	9.00	1.40	1.40
P8P9	1600	BBD0498	28.50	31.50	3.00	4.17	4.17
P8P9	1600	BBD0605	74.00	104.00	30.00	0.85	0.85	Pending
P8P9	1600	BBD0606	89.00	114.00	25.00	0.99	0.98	Pending
P8P9	1600	BBD0606	138.00	157.00	19.00	0.90	0.90	Pending
P8P9	1600	BBD0606	161.00	177.00	16.00	0.78	0.78	Pending
P8P9	1550	BBD0494	111.00	117.00	6.00	2.11	2.11	Pending
P8P9	1550	BBD0495	100.00	111.00	11.00	1.05	1.05
P8P9	1500	BBD0574	47.00	63.00	16.00	2.02	1.53
P8P9	1500	BBD0575	76.00	89.00	13.00	0.93	0.93
P8P9	1500	BBD0577	79.00	100.00	21.00	0.95	0.95
P8P9	1450	BBD0489	50.00	64.00	14.00	1.09	0.99
P8P9	1450	BBD0490	16.50	22.50	6.00	2.50	2.37
P8P9	1450	BBD0491	116.00	138.00	22.00	8.16	0.93	Pending
P8P9	1400	BBD0400	64.50	77.50	13.00	1.22	1.22
P8P9	1400	BBD0651	75.00	88.50	13.50	1.24	1.24
P8P9	1400	BBD0652	100.50	117.00	16.50	1.51	1.51
P8P9	1400	BBD0652	196.00	205.00	9.00	1.31	1.31
P8P9	1350	BBD0522	170.00	177.00	7.00	1.64	1.50
P8P9	1350	BBD0522	207.00	229.00	22.00	1.28	1.28
P8P9	1350	BBD0522	232.00	252.00	20.00	2.93	2.53
P8P9	1350	BBD0522	295.00	306.00	11.00	0.94	0.94
P8P9	1350	BBD0525	218.00	231.00	13.00	2.48	2.30
P8P9	1350	BBD0526	59.50	71.00	11.50	1.31	1.31
P8P9	1350	BBD0528	153.00	160.00	7.00	23.63	2.85
P8P9	1300	BBD0569	7.50	25.00	17.50	1.48	1.48
P8P9	1300	BBD0570	77.00	86.00	9.00	7.21	1.15
P8P9	1300	BBD0571	143.00	151.00	8.00	2.01	2.01
P8P9	1250	BBD0483	167.00	173.00	6.00	2.25	2.25
P8P9	1250	BBD0483	176.00	202.00	26.00	2.18	1.48
P8P9	1250	BBD0483	219.00	248.00	29.00	1.05	1.05
P8P9	1250	BBD0483	260.00	293.00	33.00	0.75	0.75
P8P9	1200	BBD0563	115.00	129.00	14.00	1.16	1.16
P8P9	1150	BBD0393	12.50	30.50	18.00	1.02	1.02
Siga E	12600	BBD0267	83.00	93.50	10.50	1.36	1.36
Siga E	12600	BBD0267	99.50	105.50	6.00	2.70	1.92
Siga E	12550	BBD0409	50.00	63.00	13.00	1.17	0.94
Siga E	12500	BBD0405	117.50	125.00	7.50	2.61	1.41
Siga E	12500	BBD0405	185.00	200.00	15.00	0.81	0.81
Siga E	12200	BBD0449	79.00	88.00	9.00	1.41	1.41
Siga E	12050	BBD0602	0.00	7.00	7.00	2.35	2.35
Siga S	11050	BBD0227	117.50	126.50	9.00	1.15	1.15
Siga S	10900	BBD0221	119.00	123.50	4.50	2.56	2.25
Siga S	10500	BBD0170	85.00	109.50	24.50	0.83	0.83
Siga S	10500	BBD0170	117.00	129.00	12.00	2.69	2.06
SIGA W	11800	BBD0311	129.00	143.50	14.50	0.79	0.79
SIGA W	11650	BBD0305	36.00	50.00	14.00	0.86	0.86
P16	44200	BBD0448	22.50	39.00	16.50	9.13	3.78
P16	44200	BBD0448	53.00	58.00	5.00	16.50	4.17
P16	44200	BBD0448	80.00	85.00	5.00	5.01	2.26
P16	44200	BBD0448	102.50	118.00	15.50	2.21	1.72

(2)	Weighted average grade of uncut individual assays
(3)	Weighted average grade of individual assays cut to 5 g/t
(4)	Composite width and grade are preliminary where leach residue fire assay results are pending

Table 4. Highlights of Reverse Circulation Results for this Release

(Includes holes previously reported for which the final total assay results are now available)

			From	To	Length	Uncut Grade(5)	Cut Grade(6)	Total
Zone	Section	Hole	(m)	(m)	(m)	(g/t)	(g/t)	Assay(7)
Maga	3800	BBC2753	20.00	28.00	8.00	2.15	2.06
Maga	3400	BBC2976	17.00	28.00	11.00	1.11	1.11	Pending
Maga	3350	BBC2886	23.00	30.00	7.00	6.24	1.56	Pending
Maga	3100	BBC2947	13.00	36.00	23.00	0.59	0.59	Pending
Maga	3100	BBC2948	0.00	19.00	19.00	0.75	0.75	Pending
Maga	2950	BBC2839	22.00	38.00	16.00	0.68	0.68	Pending
Maga	2950	BBC2844	41.00	56.00	15.00	0.71	0.71	Pending
Maga	2950	BBC2845	38.00	51.00	13.00	3.57	0.90	Pending
Maga	2750	BBC2929	41.00	46.00	5.00	3.14	2.22	Pending
P8P9	2300	BBC2901	10.00	16.00	6.00	1.86	1.86
P8P9	2300	BBC2904	17.00	28.00	11.00	1.01	1.01
P8P9	2100	BBC2690	23.00	36.00	13.00	0.95	0.88
P8P9	2050	BBC2684	21.00	27.00	6.00	2.10	2.10
P8P9	2000	BBC2656	35.00	50.00	15.00	1.27	1.14
P8P9	1950	BBC2653	16.00	24.00	8.00	1.48	1.48
P8P9	1950	BBC2654	26.00	35.00	9.00	1.58	1.58
P8P9	1850	BBC2673	30.00	34.00	4.00	2.87	2.87
P8P9	1850	BBC2674	31.00	42.00	11.00	1.46	1.46
P8P9	1800	BBC2668	59.00	68.00	9.00	1.46	1.41
P8P9	1750	BBC2667	48.00	62.00	14.00	1.41	1.34
P8P9	1750	BBC2713	22.00	34.00	12.00	4.53	2.82
P8P9	1750	BBC2729	46.00	59.00	13.00	1.19	1.19
P8P9	1500	BBC2727	44.00	54.00	10.00	2.13	1.73
P8P9	1150	BBC2724	36.00	43.00	7.00	2.23	1.75
P8P9	1150	BBC2724	51.00	69.00	18.00	1.77	1.73
P8P9	1150	BBC2725	11.00	23.00	12.00	1.31	1.17
P8P9	1000	BBC2718	40.00	52.00	12.00	1.02	1.02

(5)	Weighted average grade of uncut individual assays
(6)	Weighted average grade of individual assays cut to 5 g/t
(7)	Composite width and grade are preliminary where leach residue fire assay results are pending

The mineralized intervals are based on a lower cut-off grade of 0.5 g/t, a minimal width of 3 m and up to a maximum of two consecutive meters of dilution being included. The true width of the mineralization is approximately 85% of the drill length intervals in Maga, P16, P17 and P8P9 areas, and to 95% of the drill length intervals in the Siga area. The half-core samples were collected by Orezone employees using a diamond saw. The core samples from the weathered (oxide) zone were prepared by Abilab Burkina s.a.r.l. (a subsidiary of ALS-Chemex), BIGS Global Burkina s.a.r.l and SGS Burkina Faso s.a.r.l., and then split by Orezone to 1 kg using Rotary Sample Dividers (RSDs). A 1 kg aliquot was analyzed for leachable gold at BIGS Global Burkina s.a.r.l in Ouagadougou, by bottle-roll cyanidation using a LeachWell™ catalyst. The samples from the fresh or sulphide zone were prepared by BIGS Global Burkina s.a.r.l, SGS Burkina Faso s.a.r.l. and Abilab Burkina s.a.r.l. in Ouagadougou and then split by Orezone to 1 kg using Rotary Sample Dividers (RSDs). A 1 kg aliquot was analyzed for leachable gold at BIGS Global Burkina s.a.r.l in Ouagadougou, by bottle-roll cyanidation using a LeachWell™ catalyst.

The RC drilling samples were divided by Orezone employees using Rotary Sample Dividers (RSDs). A 2 kg split was prepared by Abilab Burkina s.a.r.l. (a subsidiary of ALS-Chemex), BIGS Global Burkina s.a.r.l and SGS Burkina Faso s.a.r.l., and then split by Orezone to 1 kg using RSDs. A 1 kg aliquot was analyzed for leachable gold at BIGS Global Burkina s.a.r.l in Ouagadougou, by bottle-roll cyanidation using a LeachWell™ catalyst. The leach residues from all samples with a leach grade in excess of 0.2 g/t were prepared by BIGS Global Burkina s.a.r.l. and then split by Orezone to 50 g using Rotary Sample Dividers (RSDs). A 50 g aliquot was analyzed by fire assay at Abilab Burkina s.a.r.l. (a subsidiary of ALS-Chemex) or a 30 g aliquot at SGS Burkina Faso s.a.r.l.

Orezone employs a rigorous Quality Control Program (QCP) including a minimum of 10% standards, blanks and duplicates. This program was executed under the supervision of Pascal Marquis, SVP Exploration for Orezone, who is a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101 and approved the technical information in this release. A complete table of results and the NI 43-101 Bomboré Resource Report that describes the Bomboré resource model can be found at www.orezone.com.

About Orezone Gold Corporation

Orezone is a Canadian company with a gold discovery track record of +10 M oz and recent mine development experience in Burkina Faso, West Africa. Bomboré, the Company's 100% owned flagship project, is one of the largest gold deposits in the country and is situated 85 km east of the capital city, adjacent to an international highway. The 2010 Resource is constrained within optimized open pit shells that span 11 km, and include 1.6 Moz indicated and 1.9 Moz inferred resources with an average drill depth of only 60 meters. The Company has completed a 215,000 m drill program to extend the average depth of drilling to 120 meters. The program results are expected to significantly expand resources and support the completion of a Definitive Feasibility Study in 2012. Orezone's goal is to develop Bomboré into a world-class deposit and become a mid-tier producer by 2015.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS AND FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION: This news release contains certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking statements and forward-looking information are frequently characterized by words such as "plan," "expect," "project," "intend," "believe," "anticipate", "estimate" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. Forward-looking statements in this release include statements regarding, among others, ; capital and operating cost estimates; gold production for the project; completion of a Definitive Feasibility Study in 2012; completion of a resource update in Q2 2012; commencement of production at the Bomboré Project.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS are based on certain assumptions, the opinions and estimates of management at the date the statements are made, and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. These factors include the inherent risks involved in the exploration and development of mineral properties, the uncertainties involved in interpreting drilling results and other geological data, fluctuating metal prices, the possibility of project cost overruns or unanticipated costs and expenses, the ability of contracted parties (including laboratories and drill companies to provide services as contracted); uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future and other factors. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if circumstances or management's estimates or opinions should change. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Comparisons between any resource model or estimates with the subsequent drill results are preliminary in nature and should not be relied upon as potential qualified changes to any future resource updates or estimates.

Readers are advised that National Instrument 43-101 of the Canadian Securities Administrators requires that each category of mineral reserves and mineral resources be reported separately. Readers should refer to the annual information form of Orezone for the year ended December 31, 2011 and other continuous disclosure documents filed by Orezone since January 1, 2012 available at www.sedar.com, for this detailed information, which is subject to the qualifications and notes set forth therein.