Mines and Money Americas was a fantastic success as the globally recognized industry event made its way to the Americas, more specifically Toronto, for the first time in the 13 years the event has been going on. Dr. Kal Kotecha attended this year's milestone conference and had an opportunity to sit down with Doug MacQuarrie, CEO at Asante Gold (
CSE: ASE, Forum), to get a closer view at the company, its portfolio and future prospects. Have a listen and/or read the transcript below.
Kal Kotecha- I’m here with Douglas MacQuarrie, CEO of Asante Gold Corporation. Welcome, Douglas! Can you tell us about Asante Gold and its projects?
Douglas MacQuarrie– Asante Gold is active in Ghana, West Africa. I’ve been working in Ghana since 1993 and I know the country like the back of my hand. My team has found more than 11 Million ounces in that time, and I’m formerly the president of PMI Gold, which I built from a $2000 investment until it was bought out by Asanko for $183 Million.
Kal- Wow, that is quite the resume – Can you tell us about the different Asante Gold projects?
Mr MacQuarrie - I left PMI in 2012, I formed Asante Gold, and we basically acquired three exploration projects and the near term producer Kubi Mine project. Kubi has had over $30 Million spent on it, and we would like to put it onto production as a near term, high grade underground mine.
Kal – What is your near term production target for that site?
Mr MacQuarrie – Kubi should produce 40,000-50,000 ounces per year, and there are significant drill intersections that are quite high grade in the 8, 10, 12 gram range, and we are hoping to raise $20 Million for our program using primarily project depth to minimize dilution in the next year or so. Then we want to get underground and drill off those high grade stopes, and use custom milling, toll milling, and direct shipping to maximize the high RRs and NPVs.
Kal- Can you tell us about where you are in the permitting process?
Mr MacQuarrie – Yes- permitting in Ghana is reasonably available – we have a temporary operating permit for portal and decline and underground drilling. We expect “driving the decline” will take about a year to drive, and then we would start the full permitting for the mine. We should have first production in 12 months, and then full production in 18 months, and then we would need to decide if we want to build our own mill.
Kal – how far away is the current mill?
Mr MacQuarrie – there are three mills located within about 120Km, and the current cost is about .15per tonne per km, which is a fraction of a gram, so utilizing them requires the least amount of capital to get into production.
Kal- what do you feel are the company’s biggest advantages?
Mr MacQuarrie- we have an extremely experienced team. Personally, I have been in Ghana for 23 years, we have Ned Goodman who is our Chairman of the Board; he is Deputy Chairman of the CSE, and his history with Barrick, and International Corona. We have the former mine manager of the AngloGold Ashanti Obuasi Mine - he just retired a couple years ago, and can put the mine into production very easily. Alex Heath, former Salman partners – we have a great board and extremely low market cap, which we’d like to grow.
Kal- what is your market cap and share structure right now?
Mr MacQuarrie - we are at 36 million shares right now with a market cap of about $10 Million, with stock price around $.20. We currently have a financing announced for acquisitions, which will give us about $55 Million shares outstanding when it completes.
Kal – What are the financing details?
Mr MacQuarrie – We set the price at .18 per share CDN, and are looking to raise $1 Million, and can oversubscribe up to $1.25 Million total. It comes with a half warrant for two years at $.25.
Kal – And use of proceeds?
Mr MacQuarrie – Use of proceeds is essentially $500,000 will go to immediate drilling and geophysics to find more drill targets. We expect warrants and options to be exercised and we’ll keep the drill turning.
Kal- what a great story. And the website is
www.asantegold.com?
Mr MacQuarrie – yes, it is.
Kal –Thank you for your time, today, Douglas!
Mr MacQuarrie – My pleasure, Kal.
FULL DISCLOSURE: Asante Gold is a Stockhouse Publishing client.