GoldStone enters gold loan agreement for up to $3m

West and central Africa-focussed gold exploration and development company GoldStone Resources has entered into a formal loan agreement with Asian Investment Management Services (AIMS), it announced on Monday, for a facility totalling $3m, of which $0.3m had already been drawn down and advanced.

The AIM-traded firm said the gold loan, together with the $1.3m raised under the 14% unsecured bond notes on 16 March, should allow it to continue to finance its Akrokeri-Homase Gold Project (AKHM) into production, with gold expected to be produced in the fourth quarter.

It said the 14% secured gold loan was for up to 2,000 troy ounces of gold at a price of $1,500 per ounce, equating to a value of $3m (£2.4m) before expenses.

A total of 200 troy ounces, or $0.3m, had already been drawn down and was advanced to the company in March, with the remaining 1,800 troy ounces, or $2.7m, available to be drawn down in tranches of no less than 500 troy ounce, or $0.75m, as per the company's requirements.

GoldStone said it had already requested a drawdown of a further tranche of 500 troy ounces.

It explained that security was granted to AIMS by way of a pledge over the share capital of its wholly owned Ghanaian subsidiary, GoldStone Akrokeri (GAL), which holds and would hold its AKHM licences, becoming enforceable should it be in default of its repayment obligations under the loan agreement.

A total of 120 million warrants, exercisable at 3p per ordinary share, were issued to AIMS.

The board said the gold loan, together with the bonds, would enable the company to move forward towards the start of production through the development of the open pit mine at the Homase South Pit, and the construction of the associated heap leach facility.

“I am very excited to announce the formalisation of the gold loan,” said chief executive officer Emma Priestley.

“This allows us to move forward with bringing the Homase South Pit into production, with the first gold expected to be produced in the fourth quarter of 2020.”

At 1629 BST, shares in GoldStone Resources were up 14.62% at 4.81p.