Cardinal Resources expects to rapidly expand the gold inventory at its flagship Namdini project in northern Ghana through a fresh drilling campaign.

The scope of the Namdini project has grown rapidly in recent months with exceptional drilling results, including a 99m gold zone north of the known area of mineralisation.

Cardinal has successfully completed a $6 million capital raising with strong institutional support to progress Namdini, and the company is also set to benefit from the appointment of two highly experienced mining professionals to the board.

Cardinal is poised to respond quickly to new results from the upcoming RC and diamond drilling campaign. 

The company owns its drill rig, has set up an express assaying service and Cardinal's experienced managing director Archie Koimtsidis lives in Ghana, enabling prompt and responsive decision making by the technical and management team on a daily basis.

In recent months, the company has established that gold mineralisation exceeds 100m in width and continues about 800m along strike at Namdini.

The company acquired more land around the original Namdini Mining Licence earlier this year and its first drill hole into the new area in July hit the 99m gold zone.

The 99m drill hole, 400m along strike at Namdini, was mineralised its entire length from surface at 1.21gpt, including 35m at 2.5gpt from 45m.

In September, two drill holes confirmed gold mineralisation exceeded 100m widths at the extension of Namdini.

Highlights included 13m at 3.65gpt gold from 31m vertical depth and 11m at 3.78gpt gold from 41m.

Koimtsidis said the results were greatly encouraging.

"The mineralisation remains open along strike to the north and south and at depth," he said. 

Other significant results to the north of the confirmed mineralised zone at Namdini include 83m at 1.41gpt and 67m at 3.10gpt.

The 67m high-grade gold zone was an infill hole which supported the company's confidence in the mineralisation extension.

"This infill drill hole of 67m at 3.10gpt confirms the mineralisation between the two recently announced drill holes of 99m at 1.21gpt and 83m at 1.41gpt," Koimtsidis said.

Within the mineralised zone, significant results include 51m at 3.58gpt, 43m at 2.27gpt and 42m at 2.35gpt.

At the time of going to press, the company was starting its latest drilling campaign which is well-funded thanks to the recent $6 million capital raising that attracted strong institutional support.

US Global Investors indicated their confidence in Namdini's potential by increasing their stake to 6.39% to become a substantial shareholder.

Macquarie Bank Ltd joined the capital raising to the tune of $1 million, to become one of Cardinal's largest shareholders with 5.79%.

Koimtsidis said Macquarie had detailed knowledge of the West African resources industry and had conducted a vigorous review process before showing its support.

"The company is pleased that the tremendous potential of our Ghanaian projects is increasingly being recognised by a range of investors," Koimtsidis said. 

Cardinal directors also demonstrated their faith in Namdini and took up almost 15% of the shares issued to progress the project.

The company has been further buoyed by the appointment of two experienced non-executive directors, Mark Thomas and Simon Jackson.

Thomas was lured out of retirement to join the board and Koimtsidis said the company would benefit greatly from his experience with Macquarie Bank, which included extensive equity investment and banking experience with gold projects in West Africa.

Jackson has more than 25 years experience in Australia's and Africa's gold industries and has overseen the financing, development and construction of mines in Ghana and Mauritania.

Cardinal's chairman Alec Pismiris said the company was pleased to attract such exceptional executives to the board.

"Their skills and experience will enhance the board and we look forward to their contribution to the development of the company's projects to take the company to the next level," Pismiris said. 

The company's new drilling program has been designed to test at least three times more strike length than was drilled within the confirmed mineralised zone.

The RC exploration drill holes are expected to reach up to 120m depths and will be extended by diamond core drilling if required.

Twin diamond core drilling for quality control purposes will begin from surface alongside selected RC drill holes to gather structural data and specific gravities of the different lithological units.

The RC drill program is planned for up to 6000m with 32 RC drill holes. 

Phase 1 will determine extensions to the current mineralisation within the altered volcaniclastic rocks, and Phase 2 will evaluate the monzonite granitoid quartz stockworks. 

Meanwhile, assay results from earlier drilling are showing very high recovery rates which promise favourable metallurgy for low-cost open pit mining.

Cyanide leach results from the 83m gold zone had a 92% gold recovery from oxide samples and 87% recovery from fresh samples.

The 99m gold zone revealed even greater recovery results including 96% from oxide samples.

The primary purpose of the cyanide leach test work was to establish what level of gold could be recovered by a simple cyanidation leach process from the submitted samples. 

The exciting Namdini project is near Cardinal's Bolgatanga gold project in northern Ghana.

The projects are located in a mineral-rich area and in close proximity to producing gold mines - the Shaanxi Gold Mine is 6km from Namdini and the Youga gold mine is 60km away.

Cardinal also has the Subranum project closer to Ghana's capital, Accra, through a deal with mining giant Newmont's subsidiary Newmont Ghana Gold.

Previous exploration has identified a strike length of 5.2km at the Subranum project and Cardinal plans to test three high priority areas, subject to seasonal conditions.

Koimtsidis said Ghana's well-developed mining code, skilled population and under-developed northern sector presented the perfect conditions for Cardinal.

Political stability in Ghana has made the country one of the most attractive mining investment areas in Africa, he added. 

Cardinal is now on standby for the latest drilling results to come to hand.

"Once the results have assessed, Cardinal can plan further drill holes to maximise expansion of the gold inventory within the Namdini project," Koimtsidis said.

All the signs are pointing towards an exciting maiden resource.