ASX Round-Up: An Overview of Perseus Mining and Gold Road Resources

For investors focused on the resource space, a good way to track companies listed in Australia is to look at the S&P/ASX 300 (INDEXASX:XKO). The index includes all S&P/ASX 200 (INDEXASX:XJO) companies as well as about 100 smaller-cap companies, and as of April 2015 accounted for 74 percent of the Australian equities market. Specifically, the S&P/ASX 300 Metal & Mining (INDEXASX:XMM) division is a great source for companies to watch.
The Investing News Network is thus profiling companies on the S&P/ASX 300 Metal & Mining index. This week’s companies are Perseus Mining (ASX:PRU,TSX:PRU) and Gold Road Resources (ASX:GOR,OTCMKTS:ELKMF).
Perseus Mining started producing gold at its Ghana-based Edikan mine in 2011, achieving commercial production at the site the following year. It continues to produce there, and is now also working to bring its second major gold project, Sissingue, into production. A revised feasibility study for the Cote d’Ivoire-based project was completed in April 2015, and Perseus is planning to start construction there during the final quarter of the year; first gold pour is set for 14 months after that.
The company’s most recent announcement came in June, when it released an updated NI 43-101 compliant technical report for Sissingue. Managing Director Jeff Quartermaine described it as “another milestone” along the road to production at the project. More recently, Perseus entered into an option and sale agreement with Asante Gold (CSE:ASE) under which Asante will be able to acquire up to a 100-percent interest in the Ghana-based Betanase permit.

For its part, Gold Road Resources is exploring and developing the Yamarna Belt in Western Australia. The company’s South Yamarna tenements are a joint venture with Sumitomo Metal Mining Oceania, a subsidiary of Sumitomo Metal Mining (TSE:5713); this past spring, Sumitomo achieved its first expenditure milestone, earning a 30-percent stake in the tenements. It is expected to increase that stake to 50 percent in 2016.
Gold Road has divided its Yamarna Belt tenements into what it calls Gold Camp Scale Targets. There are 10 such targets; each has a strike length of 15 to 25 kilometers and contains numerous prospects. The first target, the South Dorothy Hills trend, yielded the Gruyere deposit in 2013; most recently, Gold Road announced drill results from the Gruyere porphyry, noting that a deep drill hole intersected the porphyry at a downhole depth of 1,390 meters; that’s about 65 meters earlier than the interpreted target depth.
 
Securities Disclosure: I, Charlotte McLeod, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article. 
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