It’s good times for investors in Ghana-focused gold play Cardinal Resources.

Cardinal (ASX:CDV) has a continuing swag of high-grade results from an armada of drill rigs at its flagship Namdini project and an upgraded mineral resource in the wings.

Cardinal has climbed almost 200 per cent this year from 23c on January 3 to 68c earlier this month.

The reason for the jump in share price? Cardinal has been releasing a constant flow of high-grade drill results as part of a resource expansion drilling program at its Namdini project in Ghana.

Ghana is Africa’s second-largest gold producer, after South Africa, and has a low sovereign risk rating.

It is one of the most developed and affluent countries in Africa, with a well-developed Mining Code, infrastructure and a population with the technical skills to support modern mining projects.

Political stability has made the country one of the most attractive new mining investment areas in Africa.

Cardinal’s Namdini project in Ghana. 

Namdini, in the country’s northeast, has a large maiden 4-million-ounce resource consisting of 931,000 ounces in the “indicated” category and 3.63 million ounces in the “inferred” category.

Mineral resources are categorised in order of increasing geological confidence as inferred, indicated or measured.

Not one to rest on its laurels, Cardinal is undertaking an expansion drilling program at Namdini with a whopping eleven rigs onsite to convert inferred resources into higher categories and increase the size of the resource.

Latest results from infill drilling include best intersections of 147 metres at 3.1 grams per tonne gold, 184 metres at 2 grams per tonne gold and 121 metres at 2.1 grams per tonne gold.

The infill results have confirmed mineralised consistency within the deposit, says Cardinal’s chief Archie Koimtsidis,

“Our maiden mineral resource was initially estimated to a depth of 350 metres and our recently reported down dip step-out holes have confirmed mineralisation down to 600 metres,” Mr Koimtsidis said.

The company has flagged an upgraded mineral resource towards the end of the current quarter.

Cardinal has also increased its footprint in Ghana after acquiring two large-scale prospecting licences from Canadian gold major Kinross Gold Corporation.

The licences lie adjacent to Cardinal’s Ndongo tenement, increasing its tenement area at Ndongo to 286km.

“The consolidation of the acquired land package with our large-scale Ndongo tenement, which is located on the same regional shear zone as the Namdini deposit, will allow Cardinal to progress its regional exploration program,” Mr Koimtsidis said.

Namdini lies in the Bolgatanga region, 6 km south east of the operating Shaanxi underground Gold Mine and 12 km from Cardinal’s Ndongo East Prospect. Extensive mining activities occur all around the Namdini licence attesting to the gold bearing potential of this area.

The company also boasts a wealth of experience. Mr Koimtsidis has had significant experience in Ghana as former Deputy Country Manager of Ghana for PMI Gold and Asanko Gold.

Non-executive chairman Kevin Tomlinson is also the chairman of Xanadu Mines and a director of Samco Gold, Plymouth Minerals and former Director of Centamin and Orbis Gold.

The board also boasts experienced project developer Mark Connelly as a non-executive director. He is the former MD of Papillon Resources and CEO of Endeavour Mining and currently chairman of Tiger Resources and director of Ausdrill.

The company also completed a TSX listing in July and had $28.5 million in the bank at the end of June.

 

Cardinal closed yesterday at 64c, valuing the company at about $224 million.