TIDMGRL
RNS Number : 9876F
Goldstone Resources Ltd
25 March 2022
25 March 2022
GOLDSTONE RESOURCES LIMITED
("GoldStone" or the "Company")
Operational and Exploration Update
GoldStone Resources Limited (AIM: GRL) is pleased to provide an
operational update in relation to mining and production activities
at the Homase Mine and exploration activities at the former
Akrokeri Underground Mine.
Overview
-- Gold production began at Homase Mine this year, with 1,717
troy ounces of gold produced and sold to date, realising an average
price of US$1,907 per oz.
-- Gold loan repayments from first gold of US$1.1m, via the
delivery of 610 troy ounces to Asia Investments Management Services
Limited ("AIMS"), resulting in the interest rate being taken out of
default.
-- Construction was completed for the initial stage of the mine,
which includes crushing, sizing, agglomeration and stacking unit,
three Heap Leach Pads, a Carbon-in-Column Plant, and an Elution and
Gold Room, for a total investment of US$15 million including
overheads.
-- Start-up agglomeration issues have now been resolved and gold
recovery from the heap leach pads has increased to over 65 %, with
the latest in situ test work indicating that the leach recovery of
82% will be achieved over a 12-month period.
-- An additional crushing, agglomeration and stacking circuit is
currently being built to improve productivity and heap stacking
flexibility, using existing cash resources.
-- 2022 production target of approximately 20,000 oz gold.
-- Homase Mine is continuing to progress its capital efficient
mine and expects to achieve a cash cost of around US$840 per oz for
the remainder of 2022, with an all in sustaining cost of US$970 per
ounce.
-- Exploration is being ramped up within the Homase and Akrokeri Licences.
-- Diamond drilling to commence around Akrokeri Underground Mine during March 2022.
-- Grade Control drilling is now underway at the third pit along the Homase Trend.
Following the announcement of 4 January 2022 relating to the
agglomeration issues at Homase, which impacted initial gold
recoveries, the Company has carried out a programme of detailed
test work and cost analysis in order to further understand the
leach kinetics within the heap and therefore optimise the recovery
the remaining contained gold.
As part of this work programme, the agglomeration and crushing
circuit has been reconfigured to handle the excess clay encountered
and the greater than expected amount of silt originating from the
oxide orebody's phyllitic content. A modified screening system will
also shortly be installed to control the feed sizing, with the
fines (<3mm) being removed and fed initially to a gravity
recovery circuit. The test work indicates that the gravity recovery
circuit should recover between 14% and 24% of the contained gold,
whilst reducing leaching costs and improving cashflow.
A number of other modifications have been and are being
undertaken to increase the oxygen levels in the heap to improve the
efficiency of recovery.
Concurrent with the preparation of Cell 3 of the Heap Leach to
receive agglomerated ore, the Company is building an additional
1,000 tonne per day (tpd) crushing, agglomeration and stacking
circuit, which will double stacking capacity to 2,000 tpd and is
due to be commissioned during Q2 2022.
The Company expects to have stacked some 550,000 tonnes of
agglomerated ore by the financial year end, which will be fed from
the first two pits within the Homase Mine. Mining at the third
shallow pit is currently planned to commence during H1 2023.
Test work on the Heap Leach Pads from 2021 has identified that
there is some 88.9kg (2,858 troy ounces) of unrecovered gold. These
results meant the Company has had to remove and re-stack some of
the material on the heaps, in order to recover this contained gold,
under the improved conditions detailed above, which is expected to
occur during Q2 2022.
Test work on the gold recovery was undertaken during the period
January-March 2022 on the restacked agglomerated ore and fresh
agglomerated ore, with results showing the improved recovery rate
of 65% for this period.
Gold Production and 2022 guidance
The Company has, to date, poured 1,717 troy ounces of gold
(1,308 troy ounces in January and 409 troy ounces at the beginning
of March).
With the improved dry plant and agglomeration modifications
outlined above, the expected gold production for the remainder 2022
is expected to be between 18,500 and 23,500 oz of gold, leading to
the Company's full year production guidance of approximately 20,000
oz of gold.
Costs
Due the changes detailed above, this has resulted in an increase
in the estimated all-in-costs to USD870 per ounce. The addition of
exploratory drilling has increased the all in sustaining costs to
USD970 per ounce. It is hoped that as the year progresses we will
improve on these figures.
Mineable Resource
The current available mineable resource from the first two pits
within the Homase Mine is estimated by management to be 304,000
tonnes @ 1.7g/t of oxide ore, from which some 210,000 tonnes have
been mined to date, and 640,000 tonnes @ 1.25g/t of oxide ore,
which is an update from the mineable resource announced 12 November
2020. The mineable resource is within the confines of the 602,000oz
JORC (2012) resource previously announced.
The Company has undertaken geotechnical drilling within the
first two pits, which is currently being assessed, and subject to
the results and subsequent permitting, this could allow these pits
to extend into the fresh ores down to -80 metres, for a further
585,700 tonnes @ 1.7g/t and 1,261,600 tonnes @ 1.1g/t of fresh
ore.
The Company has commenced grade control drilling for the third
pit within the Homase Mine, in order to determine the pit planning
and expanding the mineable resource inventory. The environmental
permitting process has also commenced.
Exploration
The Company has undertaken further geochemical soil sampling
programmes within the Homase and Akrokeri Licence areas (the
"Licences"), as infill and to seek parallel zones of
mineralisation, following the programme carried out in 2018.
Several anomalies have been identified, Figure 1, and the area at
Adubriem has had two exploratory diamond drill holes, which are
currently being logged and assayed.
Figure 1 : Plan of Geochemistry Soil Anomalies
http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/9876F_1-2022-3-24.pdf
A review was undertaken at a former artisanal mining area (see
Figure 2) in the Akrokeri town, which identified veins within the
quartz trending in a North-South direction. Channel sampling was
carried out in the shallow artisanal workings, with assays set out
in Table 1 below, assays were undertaken at ALS Laboratories,
Kumasi.
Table 1 : Channel Sampling Results from Artisanal Workings
Channel Length Gold (
Sample From (m) To (m) (m) avg g/t)
1 0 6.0 6.0 5.1
--------
Including
-------- ---------------------------------------
1.8 2.3 0.5 12.2
-------- --------- ------- ------- ----------
2 0 3.0 3.0 1.8
-------- --------- ------- ------- ----------
Including
-------- ---------------------------------------
2.0 2.4 0.4 4.6
-------- --------- ------- ------- ----------
3* 0 1.0 1.0 45.0
-------- --------- ------- ------- ----------
Including
-------- ---------------------------------------
0.6 0.8 0.2 53.8
-------- --------- ------- ------- ----------
*Channel 3 is the end of the trench, where the artisanal workers
were following the vein.
Figure 2 : Former Artisanal Workings at Akrokeri Town
http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/9876F_1-2022-3-24.pdf
The Company has commenced a drilling and trenching programme at
and around the former Akrokeri Underground Mine, the Company will
update the Market as the programme progresses.
Emma Priestley, CEO of Goldstone, commented:
"Starting a new Gold Mine is never easy, and the team on site
has worked tirelessly to achieve Homase's full potential to benefit
our patient shareholders. I am pleased to report that our efforts
over the past few months have brought us to an important turning
point in the evolution of our production process. Our team has
re-engineered the mine and heap leach, focussing on enhancing
production efficiencies and supervision to minimise dilution and
improve gold recovery. The turnaround supports our previously
announced production target for 2022 and will provide a very solid
foundation for production growth over the coming years.
"Looking forward to the longer-term delivery of our growth
objectives, Akrokeri remains a key pillar of our strategy with a
drill and trench programme finally underway, we look forward to
developing the exploration in the coming weeks. As shareholders
will recall, Akrokeri is a previously producing mine with
demarcated targets for future shallow open pit mining, which we are
confident will lead to future growth of production.
"I look forward to providing further updates in due course, as
we improve on the production at Homase and commence drilling at
Akrokeri during Q2 2022."
Competent Person's Statement
The technical information within this announcement has been
reviewed and approved by Klaus Kappenschneider, an independent
geologist with 30 years' experience in gold mining, exploration and
resource estimation. Klaus is a member of the Association of
Professional Geoscientist of Ontario (APGO), is a Competent Person
(JORC, SAMREC, PEMREC) and a Qualified Person (NI 43- 101) and
accordingly, is a qualified person as required under the AIM
Rules.
**S**
For further information, please contact:
GoldStone Resources Limited
Bill Trew / Emma Priestley Tel: +44 (0) 1534 487 757
Strand Hanson Limited
James Dance / James Bellman Tel: +44 (0) 20 7409 3494
S. P. Angel Corporate Finance
LLP
Ewan Leggat / Charlie Bouverat Tel: +44 (0) 20 3470 0501
St Brides Partners Limited Tel: +44 (0) 20 7236 1177
Susie Geliher / Catherine Leftley
About GoldStone Resources Limited
GoldStone Resources Limited (AIM: GRL) is an AIM quoted low
debt, emerging gold producer via its 100% owned Homase Mine, which
started production in 2021. GRL has one of the lowest debt to
equity ratios of any emerging gold producer and when at full
planned production of approximately 2,000oz per calendar month GRL
expects an AISC of approximately USD 970 oz. Target for full
production is mid-2022.
L ocated 15km north-west of AngloGold Ashanti's Obuasi mine, in
the mineral-rich and highly prospective Ashanti Goldbelt. Homase
Mine is a series of shallow open pits producing approximately 20 -
24,000oz pa of gold, with a recently commissioned CIC treatment
plant, for the heap leach operation. First gold was poured in
November 2021, and the Company will be ramping up production during
H1 2022 .
The Homase Mine, hosts a JORC Code compliant 602,000 oz gold
resource at an average grade of 1.77 g/t. This is confined to a 4km
strike length, which the Company plans to explore, along strike and
down dip, in order to expand on the known resource. The mine was
formerly operated by AngloGold Ashanti in 2002/03 producing 52,000
oz gold at 2.5 g/t recovered.
The Company also hosts the former underground Akrokerri Ashanti
Mine, which produced 75,000 oz gold at 24 g/t recovered grade in
the early 1900s. It is the Company's intention to commence
exploration of this former mine in the near future.
The information contained within this announcement is deemed by
the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under
the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014 as it forms part of
United Kingdom domestic law by virtue of the European Union
(Withdrawal) Act 2018 (as amended).
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