Reserves upgrade to come6 Nov 2020 08:37
We should remember that there are already 277,000 ounces in the measured and indicated categories.
this means that they have a reasonable to high degree of confidence in the economic extraction of these ounces and those in the measured category, have undergone further sampling by a competent person (defined by the norms of the mining code- such as a geologist) to declare them an acceptable estimate at a high degree of confidence.
so, based on the above 277,000 ounces, with all in costs of $920 an ounce, against the current gold price of $1900, leaves just shy of $1000 an ounce profit. Allowing for $110m in costs across the life of the project, we end up with about $167m or £127m in profit after processing just these 277,000 ounces.
With 324m shares in issue, this should mean that the value held in those measured/indicated ounces is 39p per share.
There are still over 1 million ounces in the inferred category, then we should also think about further opportunities on site.
They are likely to need to be in a position to demonstrate to investors, that the level of confidence in the gold contained, is higher, by upgrading a decent portion to the proved and probable reserves categories. As this is an above ground asset, it should be far easier to quantify, than any underground assets