Doug MacQuarrie’s a man who knows gold and who knows West Africa.
He was the principal driving force behind PMI Mining, before it was bought out by Asanko Gold (TSX:AKG) for US$183mln.
PMI’s Obotan project was a classic development story: located on promising geology between the famous Ashanti fault/shear and the Bibiani shear in Ghana’s gold-rich Ashanti autonomous region, it was so good that Asanko came round for a second bite after PMI rebutted its initial overtures.
Now MacQuarrie’s back in his old stomping ground, having recently optioned some new licenses from another well-known West African gold company, Perseus Mining (ASX:PRU).
His new vehicle is Asante Mining (CNX:ASE), and the project is the Betanase concession in the Kubi area of Ghana.
Asante’s work here is just getting underway, but already it’s looking good.
The project came with a promising looking untested anomaly that certainly merited closer investigation.
Asante certainly hasn’t wasted any time.
Within a couple of months of announcing the acquisition, drill rigs had been deployed.
Now, the first results are about to come in.
Core from four holes has now been recovered and, on a first pass, show signs of significant mineralisation.
The core will now be split and sent off to the lab for proper assaying.
And the results from that work will give us the first indication of whether or not Asante’s hopes for the project are likely to be realised.