The latest Investing Matters Podcast episode featuring financial educator and author Jared Dillian has been released. Listen here.
Its also an industry where technology improves dramatically and deposits that weren't economic a while ago now are. Certainly the really big deposits have mostly been found and overall size will drop. It also depends what you class as a "discovery". Have a look at how many mines Endeavour and B2Gold have brought online recently.
But annual production is increasing... https://www.statista.com/statistics/238414/global-gold-production-since-2005/
Show me a map or cross section and some context. One swallow does not a summer make. I've worked on a project where the first hole hit 1m @1,500g/t in an overall intersection of 12m. It couldn't be repeated and nothing came of it. Show me four holes in a row with decent intersections and I'll happily change my mind.
Not sure if I�m a fan or not just yet. What I am is someone with 35 years experience in the exploration sector. A bit of bluster on one or two intersections means very little. They have drilled under an existing artisanal mine and hit two good results. Forgive me for getting excited. Until there is some indication of repeatability then it means very little at this stage. And yes, they currently have a resource of ZERO ounces.
The results are very average. Yes there�s strike, but we knew that already as there�s artisanal miners there. The high grade intersections are only 1m wide. And the wide intersections are sub 1 g/t. So for all the spin and bluster they havent got anything close to being economically mineable yet.
Gold Fields completely mismanaged Damang. The end result was that when they did decide to continue they needed to do a massive cutback in the pit at huge cost. $1.3B (yes billion!) http://www.miningmx.com/news/gold/28276-gold-fields-invest-1-4-billion-ghanas-damang-mine/ How much of that has been invested to date I don't know, or how much more would be needed. Those numbers will dictate if its a good potential deal or not. The Asanko deal IMHO isn't the greatest, but it is a good fit for GF as they can shift everything directly from Tarkwa. I still think they overpaid but with Zijin sniffing around their hand was forced.
And yet Gold Fields are happy to pay 200M for 50% of Asanko, a project with lower grades and much higher AISC than Yanfolila. Big companies need long life mines and revenue streams. And it does mean something for HUM - they got a bargain.
Lets wait and see some assay results before drawing any conclusions. Referring to Sanankoro as a "discovery" is becoming a bit tedious. The project was previously drilled by both Randgold and Goldfields and has a massive artisanal site on top of it. So to claim it as a discovery is nonsense.