GoldStone makes progress at Akrokeri

GoldStone Resources updated the market on the progress of activities at its Akrokeri-Homase Gold Project in the Ashanti Region of Ghana on Tuesday, reporting the sinking of a new shaft to access the historic high grade gold mine - one of two previously producing operations at AKHM.

The AIM-traded firm said that would enable it to complete a geological assessment of the Mine.

It said the Akrokeri Mine was located approximately 6 km along strike from one of the world's major gold mines, AngloGold Ashanti's Obuasi Mine, which had a total historical and current resource in excess of 70 million ounces of gold.

GoldStone said the new 'Norton' shaft was being sunk 40 metres east of the historic North Shaft at the Akrokeri Mine to a target depth of 30 metres.

The Norton Shaft was intended to provide access to the mineralised zone at the mine, which produced 75,000 ounces of gold in the early 1900s at a recovered average grade of 24 g/t Au, as well as access to the old mine workings, which were fully operational until an ingress of water in 1909, and “valuable” geological information and allow the extraction of samples for test work

GoldStone said it had initiated a bulk sample programme along the Homase Trend.

It also announced the start of an environment baseline assessment to support onward development at AKHM, ahead of intended production within two years

“This update is a culmination of the previous six month's work, that for the first time includes the collation and review of information from all historic exploration, drilling and mining activities across the project, which we believe reinforces AKHM's prospectivity and upside potential,” said chief executive Emma Priestley.

“We are extremely excited by the opportunities at AKHM, including several new targets identified during the review, being the Akrokeri Mine, the potential for further pits along the Homase Trend that includes the Homase Pit, which was mined by AngloGold in 2002/3 at a recovered grade of 2.5 g/t Au, and additional parallel zones.

"With Ghana's Parliament recently ratifying the regulatory and fiscal agreements for the redevelopment of our neighbour, the Obuasi Gold Mine, and the issuing of their environmental permit, the attitude in Ghana towards mining is increasingly positive, reinforcing the backdrop to our strategy of rapidly advancing the Project and achieving production within two years.”