Arguably the most exciting period for Goldstone and its investors is upon us as the company announce drilling has started at its 100% owned, high grade Akrokeri mine which previously produced 75koz of gold with an average recovered grade of 24g/t
Goldstone last week announced the start of drilling at its 100% owned, formerly producing Akrokeri underground mine in Ghana. This follows what has been a busy couple of years bringing the Homase gold mine online despite a number of headwinds such as Covid.
Homase is now operational (as of November 2021), no small feat and despite some teething issues the mine is regularly pouring gold with increased recovery rates and a gradual ramp-up expected. 2022 guidance is 14koz, with following years ramping up incrementally to a potential 50koz target.
Despite the usual doom-mongering on various bulletin boards, the company have rapidly brought the mine into production and even built their own gold room. In addition the company continues to pay down it’s small debt liability and should be debt-free either this year or early next year.
This pathes the way for expansion and as mentioned at the recent AGM, even the possibility of dividends as early as next year. The elephant in the room however is what’s happening right now – the resumption of exploration drilling at Akrokeri, lets talk about why this really could be a ‘game-changer’ then!
Akrokeri Exploration Programme
Akrokeri in its initial 5 years of production produced 75,000 ounces of gold at an average recovered grade of a huge 24g/t. Why is that huge? Well because mines can commercially produce at grades as low as 1-2g/t. Admittedly, under-ground mining is more costly but the average recovered grade of 24g/t in its initial operation will have eyes firmly fixed on the exploration programme and its outcomes!
Location, location, location…
The Akrokeri Mine is located in a highly prospective region and is approximately 12km NNE and along strike from the multi-million ounce Obuasi Mine, owned by AngloGold Ashanti Ltd, and 6km south of the Company’s producing Homase Mine (see image above).
From the re-logging of core in 2018, individual assays returned grades of up to 24.8g/t and 51g/t gold, This is why the company have been keen to get back into Akrokeri as soon as practicable following steadying production as Homase.
The exploration programme will be a 1,500 metre diamond drill comprising 15 holes, focused on testing extensions of the mineral lode that was formerly mined between 1905 and 1909. This programme builds on previous drilling work conducted by Pan African Resources and Birim Goldfields that both confirmed the potential of a high-grade deposit.
For more information on the drill campaign and technical data refer to the company RNS here
A ruby in the dust?
This is a phrase I like to coin when talking about investments that have the potential to transform your investment portfolio! There are a plethora of AIM and junior resource companies that are good at ‘talking the talk’ with mediocre projects at best and no clear path (or team for that matter!) for realising value.
Goldstone however offers an interesting risk/reward here given its now a producer and has most definatley been ‘walking the walk’ as evidenced by bringing Homase into production, the generation of first cash with expansion and growth planned at Homase and extremely low comparative debt gearing.
This alone in my opinion makes the current market cap look cheap but as is the subject of this blog, add in Akrokeri, its huge potential (de-risked somewhat by previous production) and with results from the drill programme coming soon this could significantly move the dial!
Exciting times…
If you are interested in Goldstone it’s worth following the twitter account where information on Homase/Akrokeri and operations is regularly posted https://twitter.com/GoldstoneRes
You can follow me on twitter https://twitter.com/TheMoneySponge
Disclaimer
Research materials prepared based upon my own analysis and research. Accuracy cannot be guaranteed and research notes should not be taken as investment advice. Please always do your own research.
