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(Alliance News) - Wishbone Gold PLC on Wednesday said it is now planning to start an active exploration and drilling programme at its Wishbone II gold project in Queensland, Australia.
Shares in Wishbone were up 50% at 2.10 pence in London in morning trading. The stock is now in positive territory for the year to date.
The decision to begin the programme follows Wishbone's "major corporate restructuring exercise" that left the company debt free and with cash at bank.
This exercise took place in late May with 63.5 million new shares issued at 1.35 pence each.
This included 22.2 million shares to raise GBP300,000 through a placing, 13.0 million shares issued to settle GBP175,689 of directors and management fees, and 28.1 million shares issued for the conversion of outstanding loans with Sanderson Capital Partners Ltd and Black Swan FZE, as well as to discharge other creditors.
The restructuring left Wishbone with no significant liabilities and enough cash for the foreseeable future at that time.
As previously reported, high-grade surface rock-chip samples with assays at surface up to 25.2 grams of gold per tonne of ore have been found at the at the Hanging Valley prospect in Wishbone II. Assays of 7.32 grams per tonne were recorded at the Oaky Mill prospect on the licence.
The Wishbone II, III, and IV projects consist of a 14,700 hectare group of exploration licences in the Mingela area, around 80 kilometres south of the major Queensland port city of Townsville.
Wishone II is located between two producing gold projects, the Charters Towers project to the west and the Ravenswood project to the east, the latter of which was recently sold for up to AUD300 million, around GBP164 million. Charters Towers and Ravenswood have combined inferred reserves of more than 10 million ounces of gold.
Chair Richard Poulden said: "We are now commencing a new and exciting phase of the company's development. Now that the complicated process of cleaning up the Wishbone corporate and capital structure has been completed, we are now focusing at getting value from our gold assets in Australia.
"The Queensland state government has acted swiftly with respect to Covid-19 lockdowns and controls and the state is relatively free from the virus. Mining is also regarded by the government as a key essential industry, so conducting exploration on the company's assets can be accomplished in these globally difficult times. We have therefore instructed our geological consultants to prepare an initial drilling programme on our key gold prospects. We intend to hit exploration hard and take advantage of the elevated gold price and our excellent gold assets."
By Anna Farley; annafarley@alliancenews.com
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