Shares of GoldStone Resources (LON: GRL) are rallying on Thursday after the company announced that mining and ore stacking at the Homase Mine within its Akrokeri-Homase Gold Project (AKHM) in Ghana has commenced.
The company's CEO, Emma Priestley, described it as a “pivotal step” in GoldStone Resources' evolution.
GoldStone's share price has jumped over 23% to 14.3p following the announcement.
80,000 tonnes of ore have been stockpiled, equating to around one month of mine production at full 3,000 tonnes per day heap leach capacity, according to the company.
The first eight months of production of the Homase Mine is forecast to produce around 25,000 ounces of gold, at a total cash cost, pre-tax, of under $600per ounce.
The planned gold production for the first eight months of mining now exceeds the company's original guidance of 14,400 ounces per annum.
GoldStone CEO, Priestley, stated: “Commencement of operations will lead to an ongoing revenue stream and will also establish a base for unlocking value in our AKHM project. I would like to thank the staff in Ghana for the successful start-up of the Homase Mine.
“Having already increased our gold resources, announced 3 December 2020, as a result of our exploration programme, we are now able to increase our planned production rate to around 50,000 ounces of gold per annum, including 25,000 ounces in calendar year 2021. This represents an increase of more than 300% from the original production schedule.
“A further benefit from the commencement of production at Homase is that exploration team will now be able to proceed with drilling the Homase Mineralised Trend that lies below and along strike of the current 602,000 ounce JORC resource, with a view to extending the mine's original 5 year life.”
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