Oakdale raises cash at 31pc premium; Kingsgate gets green light to sell gold 'sludge'

Investors are still on the hunt for cheap gold stocks and Oakdale Resources (ASX:OAR) is the latest beneficiary, completing an oversubscribed $2.2m placement at a premium.

The company received $785,000 more than it was aiming for, with investors paying 2.1c per share — a 31 per cent premium to the 10-day volume weighted average price of Oakdale shares.

New investors will be happy, with shares already trading 19 per cent higher than what they bought in for.

Oakdale Resources (ASX:OAR) share price chart

Oakdale was raising the cash to complete drilling at its Lambarson Canyon project in Nevada and undertake general exploration work at its Crown project in the Julimar District.

A five-hole diamond drilling program is now underway at Lambarson Canyon on targets that returned initial channel samples of 3m at 6.97 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and an individual rock-chip/float sample which returned 61.6g/t.

Oakdale is targeting intrusion related and distal disseminated gold mineralisation similar to the million-ounce-plus gold deposits in the Battle Mountain – Cortez and Getchell trends.

Drilling will continue until the end of September.

Promising gold discoveries

Golden Deeps (ASX:GED), meanwhile, has uncovered two new gold mineralised trends in a region that once produced high-grade gold averaging 38 grams per tonne.

Shares shot up 15 per cent on Thursday morning after the company told investors a compilation of data from previous exploration at the Tuckers Hill project in NSW showed the presence of the two new trends.

Tuckers Hill produced 1900 tonnes of ore at an average grade of 38g/t from 1896 to 1908 and from 1916 to 1939.

Golden Deeps says quartz reefs within the project assayed up to 705g/t in 1963 sampling.

Further sampling of dumps and quartz veins in 1981 returned multiple assays over 1g/t gold with a peak value of 28g/t.

The project area is significantly underexplored, Golden Deeps says.

Golden Deeps (ASX:GED) share price chart

Green light to sell ‘gold sludge’

Kingsgate Consolidated’s (ASX:KCN) subsidiary Akara Resources has been given the thumbs up by the Thai government to sell “high-value gold and silver sludge” from its Chatree gold mine.

The sludge is the material cleaned from the tanks and processing plant following the closure of the mine in December 2016.

It will be sold to a Thai refinery for processing into fine gold and silver.

Kingsgate says the sludge contains about 4,750oz of gold and 34,800oz of silver, which places its value at around $14m at a gold price of $2,678 an ounce before royalties, transportation and refining costs.

In March last year the company received an $82m insurance payout after the Thai government forced the premature closure of the mine.

Chatree was closed after the Thai government decided not to renew the metallurgical licence after 2016. Kingsgate’s lease for Chatree was due to run to 2028.

The decision was based on unsubstantiated reports of environmental damage and public health impacts due to the operation.

“Whilst this move is long overdue, Kingsgate sees it as a small but positive step, and seemingly as an act of good faith, indicating a new willingness by the Thai government to pursue a negotiated settlement between the two parties, a process KCN has advocated for some considerable time,” Kingsgate said.