Modern Mining April 2025

GOLD OUTLOOK

Goldstone Resource is back in the trenches By Nelendhre Moodley Gold miner, Goldstone Resources begins 2025 upbeat and looking forward to being back in the mining trenches as it ramps up gold production to name-plate capacity of 48 000 tons per month at its flagship Homase gold project in Ghana, says CEO, Emma Priestley.

T he AIM quoted gold producer and explorer, is advancing its Homase gold project, located in the prolific Ashanti Gold Belt in Ghana. The Homase mine, formerly operated by AngloGold Ashanti, lies some 20 km along strike from the Obuasi Gold Mine, one of the world’s major gold mines with a total historical and current resource in excess of 70 moz Au. AngloGold Ashanti ceased mining the Homase mine when the gold price collapsed to $275/oz in 2003. Since bringing its flagship asset into production in 2022, Goldstone Resources has encountered a series of plant and financial challenges, which saw the miner return to the drawing board. Speaking to Modern Mining on the sidelines of the Investing in African Mining Indaba 2025, Priestley explains that following its initial gold pour in January 2022, the company faced plant challenges, with the dry plant and the heap leach processing plants experiencing efficiency issues. Following a tough two years, in December last year the company was able, finally, to shake off its legacy issues and begin afresh. Since then, the miner has revised its plant and operations and is now achieving optimal levels of productivity. Goldstone Resources is currently ramping up production at its Homase open pit mine whilst advancing exploration and

development initiatives at the historic high-grade Akrokeri mine. The company is leveraging its assets to increase near-term cash flow while unlocking substantial exploration upside. “SInce November last year, we have been ramping up production and stockpiling material. We will continue to ramp up to steady-state production of 48 000 tons per month. This was accomplished in Q1 2025, and Goldstone continues to maintain a steady state.” According to Priestley, the current orebody at Homase mine hosts a JORC compliant mineral resource of 602 000 ounces of gold with an average gold grade of 1.77 g/t, within which 116 000 ounces of gold at 2.24 g/t are in the measured resource category. The JORC Resource within the 4.4km Homase Trend is being mined above a depth of 240m. The resource is also open at depth. Goldstone Resources is currently mining near surface oxides which are pegged at 1.1 grams a ton but remains upbeat that as it continues to mine at depth, it will unlock higher grades that are reflective of its neighbour, AngloGold Ashanti’s Obuasi Gold Mine. Priestley firmly believes that the Homase orebody is an extension of the Obuasi orebody, which has grades of around 8 g/t. This year the gold producer’s objective is to restart exploration drilling as it seeks to identify more areas of oxide

10  MODERN MINING  www.modernminingmagazine.co.za | APRIL 2025