The company established Namdini’s maiden resource within 18 months of discovery and the gold deposit’s potential keeps growing as the company continues exploration, reveals promising metallurgical testwork and bolsters its management team.

Part of the Western Australian-headquartered company’s success to date is due in part to having senior management based in Ghana, where they have established strong local support and can respond immediately to drilling results.

Managing director Archie Koimtsidis said plans for Namdini, the company’s most advanced project in Ghana, were progressing quickly towards development.

“We have a large maiden resource of 4Moz and growing,” he told the Gold/Silver Investor Hub during a recent investment tour in Europe.

“It’s a large, maiden gold discovery in a very safe and progressive country. 

“Initial metallurgical test work indicates that we can follow a conventional crush-grind-float-regrind-CIL processing route to produce gold dore bars on site. 

“This is very exciting, as we can progress through a scoping study and into a feasibility study quickly, having a very good understanding of the preferred processing route.

“Obviously with a solid 4Moz resource under our belt, the first imperative is to drive the project forward into production as soon as we can.” 

The deposit already measures up to 300m wide and more than 1km long and significant resource extension drilling results, including 18m at 27.82g/t gold, demonstrate the Namdini deposit extends to the east, south and at depth. 

Koimtsidis sees the extensional drilling adding to the overall resource and providing Cardinal with confidence in its initial interpretation that Namdini (pictured, above) is a large system with deep roots. 

“It was very encouraging to see the deposit continue to surface and especially to depth where it could have a material impact on the final pit depth,” he said. 

Cardinal recently provided an interim metallurgical update for Namdini that has demonstrated significant improvements on the initial testwork that was based on a single drill hole in Nov 2016. 

“The main highlights of the recent metallurgical work are firstly that gold recoveries will be greater than 80% for the fresh rock,” Koimtsidis explained. 

“Secondly, gold recoveries are greater than 90% for the oxides. 

“Furthermore, the gold is associated with less than 4% of the rock mass which augers well for us to be able to produce a high-grade gold concentrate for conventional CIL processing on site. 

“Given that the volumes will be small in comparison to the amount of material hosting the gold, we will be able to follow a conventional crush-grind-float-fine grind-CIL process route. 

“We are also excited that there are gold recovery enhancements easily achievable through further optimisation for such small volumes comparatively.” 

Cardinal is now working on a detailed metallurgical report, due out in the second quarter of 2017, which will be of a sufficient level to use within a feasibility study, that will follow an imminent scoping study.

“We are awaiting a few more data points and the board will then be in a position to announce the start of a scoping study, which we anticipate will occur in the near-term,” Koimtsidis said. 

The company is building on its skills set to progress Namdini through recent appointments including globally experienced metallurgist and project manager Bruce Lilford and Erik Palmbachs as chief financial officer.

“Lilford sees Namdini’s orebody as a simple and straightforward flotation and grinding optimisation exercise which will then allow for maximum economical extraction of gold on site,” Koimtsidis said.

“Erik has a wealth of financial skills and his background is helping to assess the financial alternatives that exist in the market.

“We have a very strong and experienced team both technically but also on the community and social levels.

“We are driving forward as fast as we can to develop the project and will be using Bruce and Erik's skills to speed along the process so that we end up with a financing solution that is best for shareholders.”  

With A$18 (US$14) million in the bank at the end of December, Cardinal is well-funded to continue towards development at Namdini and progress its other prospects within the broader Bolgatanga project in northern Ghana, and at Subranum to the south.

At Bolgatanga, Cardinal is waiting on results of its auger drilling programme to flow through for review, before it finalises further exploration plans for the second quarter.

“We expect that we shall proceed with the Bolgatanga project exploration given our airborne geophysical programme generated many line kilometres of target areas,” Koimtsidis (pictured right) said. 

“At Subranum, we have cleared most of Newmont’s historical drill paths and identified most of their drill locations.

“We are still on track to begin a ‘twin’ drill program which may be delayed by weather but none-the-less, we will march on as best we can.”

Exploration remains a top priority for Cardinal and Koimtsidis said all the projects within the company’s portfolio had “equal exploration priority” at this early stage.

“Namdini obviously takes the lead given it now has a 4Moz resource, but let’s not forget that the Namdini deposit also requires further exploration around it just in case there are some more hidden ounces,” he said.

“Our main drive for Namdini in the coming months is to optimise laboratory samples for the detailed metallurgical programme, continue with our environmental and community studies and to continue to explore the possible extensions of mineralisation of this large system.” 

Cardinal’s shares have risen more than 230% since last February as Namdini’s potential has unfolded and Koimtsidis is quick to issue a reminder that this is just the beginning.

"We are excited to have such a good starting point with Namdini, which we will push into production as quickly as possible,” he said.

“This will not only be beneficial to our shareholders but also to the local Ghanaian community who could really use the development. 

“The 4Moz resource is set to grow and we have excellent community and government support for its eventual development.”