Interview with Douglas MacQuarrie, President & CEO of Asante Gold Corporation – A Gold Driven, Ghana Focused Exploration Company

Asante gold, precious metals, 黄金, 贵金属
Published on: February 10, 2017
Author: NAI500

Asante Gold Corporation (CSE:ASE) is a Vancouver, Canada based gold exploration company with its operations based in the African nation of Ghana, the world’s ninth largest gold producer.

The Company’s flagship project is building the Kubi Gold Mine. Kubi adjoins to the south of AngloGold Ashanti’s 66 million ounce* Obuasi Gold Mine, one of the World’s greatest ore bodies (* pre-mining resource).

In October 2016; Asante Gold announced that it had brought in a JV partner to fully finance the Kubi Project to production, Chinese listed company Beijing Fuxing Xiao-Cheng Electronic Technology Stock Co. Ltd (“BXC Company”). Asante Gold retains 50% ownership in the Kubi Project, and has just successfully completed a $1.25 million private placement.


We sat down with Douglas MacQuarrie, President & CEO of Asante Gold to get an update and to discuss the current opportunities for investors.

1. Asante Gold just completed a C$1.25 million fundraising early in January 2017, followed by a larger C$19.5 million 50:50 Joint venture. With these new milestones, what are Asante’s plans for the near future?

We anticipate closing the BXC – Kubi joint venture in late February. Based on that timeline, surface works, drilling, ground geophysical surveying, portal construction and decline development to the -180 m level would commence.

Preliminary designs for the underground work have been completed. Based on a successful underground drilling program to upgrade current resources to reserves and completion of a final mining plan and permits, initial stope development work is expected to occur 12 months from commencement, with full production targeted at 500 tpd in 18 months.

Our current plan is to process future production utilizing direct shipping and toll milling in order to decrease capital costs and time to production.

2. Can you give a brief description of Asante’s exploration projects? 

Asante Gold currently has four active exploration projects besides the Kubi Mine near term development JV:  the Keyhole and Betenase Options, the Fahiakoba concession and the Ashanti II project.

Keyhole is a very exciting exploration project on two small concessions located at the intersection of major regional (+100 km) geological structures that are regionally associated with producing gold mines. Intensive artisanal alluvial gold mining over a distance of some 6km has occurred over the last 30 years.  Historical workings with reported grades to 25 g/t gold over 8 m widths, and recent survey work have outlined initial drill targets, and a 1200 metre initial drill program is planned to commence in early February.

At Betenase, under optionfrom Perseus Mining Ghana, initial drilling in late 2015 intersected anomalous gold mineralization associated with wide zones of alteration in geophysical IP targets. Further IP surveying to cover a larger target zone and areas of local alluvial mining, and follow up drilling is planned for 2017.

At Fahiakoba, our initial IPO listing property which adjoins to the northeast of the active Perseus Edikan mine, two phases of drilling have intersected values to 289.5 g/t gold over 0.5 m width. One major mineralized trend which cuts through the eastern part of the concession requires further IP survey work and drill testing.

The Ashanti II concessions are currently in the process of acquisition, which is expected to be completed in mid 2017. These concessions form a continuous package surrounding the Keyhole project and cover two major mineralized trends that stretch from 15 to 50 km southwest of the operating Asanko Gold Mine. They have been actively explored by many companies over the years with numerous target zones already defined for follow up.

3. What are the upsides to Asante?

Asante Gold`s properties are located in Ghana. Ghana is Africa’s second-biggest gold producer, and hosts more estimated reserves than such key gold-producing countries as Peru and Papua New Guinea. Ghana`s deep mining potential has barely been scratched – and will be the source of an ever increasing volume of ore.  Deep sensing geophysical techniques are now available to help outline unknown major gold deposits.

4. What do investors have to look forward to when investing in Asante?

Asante Gold has a strong and experienced management team.

Our chairman, Ned Goodman, is an inductee of the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame – Mr. Goodman’s investment experience spans more than 40 years as a securities analyst, portfolio manager and senior executive, and he has an established reputation as one of Canada’s most successful investment counsellors.

The VP of Production and Development, Bashir Ahmed, has more than 30 years’ experience in underground Gold Mining; in operations, mine planning, project management and consultancy services. Mr Ahmed worked in the World Class AngloGold Ashanti’s Obuasi mine, producing  1.8 Mt/yr, and managed a workforce of over a 1000, with an annual development budget of over US$100 million.

Investors like to look at numbers and valuation. So, based on BXC paying C$19.5M for a 50:50 joint venture in the Kubi Project, one of our four assets, plus all other exploration properties, Asante Gold should be valued at more than $20M. With fully diluted 60M shares outstanding, that suggests an asset value of circa $0.35 per share.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at [email protected].

Douglas MacQuarrie
President & CEO
Asante Gold Corporation (CSE:ASE)


Disclaimer: NAI is being compensated for this article. Materials contained in this article is for information purposes only and is not intended to constitute an offering of securities in any jurisdiction. Nothing on this article should be construed as an offer, solicitation or recommendation to buy or sell products or securities.

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