How will the US$525 million financing package help Asante advance towards 500,000 oz/y production by 2028?

We are looking at an estimated capital spend for FY25 of around US$200 million, most of which will go towards the open pit expansion, completion of the sulfide treatment plant and the phase one community resettlement action plan, all at our Bibiani mine in Ghana. Most of the equipment for the sulfide expansion plant is either on site or currently being shipped to site, and we expect to see the plant commissioned in Q1/25 and fully operational by Q2/25. US$20 to 25 million (out of the US$200) will be deployed towards underground equipment and plant upgrades for the Chirano mine. Besides this expansion spend, we will use the proceeds from the financing package to settle previous debt, amounting to a total of around US$200 million. This includes approximately US$165 million owed to Kinross towards the Chirano acquisition. Additionally, we need to cover payments for local contractors. The rest will serve as working capital, critical to moving the business forward, with significant increase of gold production and to  strengthen our balance sheet. 

Could you give us a sense of Asante’s district exploration focus?

Across our land package and in the heart of the Bibiani-Chirano gold corridor, responsible for over 8 million oz delivered in the last century, we have 80 km of strike, with interconnecting gold-bearing structures and shear zones and plenty of potential left to be explored. There has been minimal regional exploration conducted over this tier-one district in the proximity of Bibiani in the last 100 years. In 2021, we launched a near-mine exploration program that has delivered over 1 million oz in additional resources. This year, we spent a lot of time and effort on geomagnetics, soil samples, ICPs and other pre-drilling exploration activities to understand the drilling targets which will be included with our planned 2025 drilling campaign. We expect to add between 500,000 and 1 million oz. Moreover, we are planning to progress with underground exploration at the Kubi gold project.

What is the current plan for Kubi?

Kubi has a Measured and Indicated resource base of around 250,000 to 300,000 oz, with another 130,000 oz in the inferred category. Asante will mine and process from the surface oxide ore, and we are busy installing a gravity processing plant to develop the open pit and recover gold, while, at the same time, we are getting started to develop an underground exploration program. The mineralization at Kubi is such that we cannot drill from the surface because the gold runs near-vertical, so we need to drill from underground. We initiated the studies to design the underground portal for a two-phased drilling campaign. 

How do you see the current investment appetite for gold?

Historically, most gold producers have used a US$1,400-1,500/oz consensus price, while now we reference a US$2,100-2,200/oz. There is plenty of noise in the market about a US$3,000 gold, which would no longer be surprising, but completely fathomable.

What are some of the main advantages of working in Ghana?

Ghana has been extracting gold and other minerals on an industrial basis for almost 100 years. There are two leading universities that teach mining, metallurgy and other related disciplines. Ghana has an unmatched skills base and talent pool, which is why you see many Ghanaians sought after to work in other places in Africa. For example, I was previously working for Barrick in Tanzania, and the lack of a mature mining industry backed by specialist schools was plainly obvious in the day-to-day mining business: Out of the 350 expats working across the four mines, about 35% were from Ghana, and most of them have since progressed to top-seniority roles. By comparison, at Asante Gold we only have four expats in total: Our CEO, CFO, COO and VP of Technology. I am based here in Accra and we are a fully-integrated Ghanaian company. I think the quality of the workforce is the greatest advantage of operating in Ghana. 

Do you have a final message? 

Asante has been through a long journey to obtain the cornerstone half a billion USD financing, and we are at a very exciting juncture: We are positioned to become a mid-tier producer with a very solid balance sheet and growing production platform.