Goldplat (LON:GDP) has announced that it has signed a letter of intent (LOI) for an earn-in agreement on one of its long standing early stage gold projects in Ghana with Gulf Shore Resources (GSR CN), a TSX-V listed gold exploration company. Goldplat has a 90% interest in Anumso, a ten year renewable mining lease covering an area of 29km2. Anumso already has a current JORC compliant resource of 166,865oz of gold at 2.04g/t.
Following the LOI a binding option agreement should be completed within 30 days and would give GSR the option to earn 75% of GDP’s interest (67.5% of the whole project). The option would be staged over two periods of 18 and 12 months in which GSR would have to spend US$1.5m in each to earn 51% and then 24%. GSR would be the operator of the programme should it exercise the option.
As a non-core asset to GDP for which no capital was dedicated the potential return is clearly a positive and allows management to maintain its focus on the core business. We note that GSR recently raised c£450k which may be used to support the advancement of the Anumso project.
Pending clarity regarding the Rand Refinery contract announcement of 11 July there remains uncertainty over our forecasts for FY 2016 earnings. Consequently, our Target Price and Recommendation remain Under Review.