The company’s growing potential is not going unnoticed – major institutional investors have increased their stakes on-market, the company has been added to the ASX All Ordinaries Index and meanwhile, four drill rigs are working around the clock as Cardinal works to produce a resource upgrade and scoping study within months.

Cardinal’s aim is to develop the first open-cut gold mine in Ghana’s prospective north-east.

“We have an excellent 4 million ounce maiden resource from surface that will grow,” CEO and managing director Archie Koimtsidis told the Gold and Silver Investor Hub from the company’s operational base in north-east Ghana.

“But our main focus is to drive towards production as fast as we can.

“We are not only excited by the current size of the resource, but also by its large upside potential and the ever-increasing recoveries we see from a very standard crush-grind-float-regrind-CIL process circuit.”

He said the company’s top priorities in the coming months were completing a scoping study for Namdini, which would lead into a feasibility study, finding more gold immediately surrounding the Namdini deposit and drill testing the company’s other land packages for gold.

Namdini’s mineralised system spans 300m wide and extends over 1km, and ongoing drilling continues to bring positive news, with early February results demonstrating extensions to the east, south and below the 4Moz resource.

More recent assays results included a highlight of 30m at 4.27g/t gold from a west step-out down-dip extension drill hole (core logging shed, pictured left).

“This first of many step-out holes indicates that the system is still intact at depth,” Koimtsidis said.

“This hole has now confirmed that mineralisation exists at depth in the centre of the orebody by another 200m to a new vertical depth of 550m.

“Our exploration programme is continuous as we have not explored the limits of mineralisation, which remains open.”

Besides Namdini, Cardinal has three strong gold prospects as part of its greater Bolgatanga project in the country’s north, and at Subranum to the south.

“Newmont’s historical drilling at Subranum requires some twin hole drilling confirmation before a larger exploration programme is planned,” Koimtsidis said.

“Let’s not forget that we have mineralisation over at least 5km of strike length.”

Cardinal has planned a systematic diamond drilling programme for this calendar year to better evaluate the 5km zone.

At Bolgatanga, Cardinal is awaiting results from a first-pass soil geochemical sampling programme to flow through and be reviewed.

“Subject to the results, we will take the necessary steps – once again, let’s not forget that these prospects contain many line kilometres of potential drill targets as identified in our 2013 airborne geophysical programme,” Koimtsidis said.

A great deal of Cardinal’s successes to date stems from management being based in north-east Ghana, meaning rapid responses to exploration results and strong relationships with the local community.

“We have a very long, entrenched history with the local, regional and national stakeholders on many levels,” Koimtsidis said.

“We are all focussed as a team, with the sole objective of developing the first open-cut mine in the northern sector of Ghana.

“As we all know, Ghana’s large-scale producing gold mines are located in the southern sector so all stakeholders are united behind Cardinal in order to achieve this objective.”

The project location has other benefits, lying in open savannah grassland and close to quality infrastructure, within 30km of the national high voltage power grid, 15km from a sealed highway and 7km from a water supply.

Cardinal started shoring up its management team in recent months, appointing Erik Palmbachs as chief financial officer and globally experienced metallurgist Bruce Lilford as project manager.

“They have hit the ground running,” Koimtsidis said.

“Our team is being assembled to drive Namdini project into production as soon as we can. 

“The project will definitely require further appointments in order to achieve this objective.

“What we can say is that our main focus is on delivering a scoping study as soon as practically possible, while at the same time continuing to infill the known extent of the deposit to take the resource up in confidence categories,” he added.

“We are also very encouraged with drilling beneath the resource model, where we have continued to intersect a very wide mineralised zone which we will be looking to also drill over the near-term as any extensions to depth or along strike should have a material impact, not only on the resource size but also on the overall economics of the project in the up and coming studies.”

An interim metallurgical update released last month resulted in markedly improved recovery rates, which Koimtsidis said demonstrated the testwork was heading in the right direction and provided confidence for all stakeholders.

“The results are part of an ongoing programme of improvements with simple industry standard recovery techniques,” he said.

“We have a comprehensive programme underway that will characterise the entire length and breadth of the extensive Namdini mineralised system.

“The testwork clearly indicates that a standard crush-grind–float-regrind-CIL circuit will be the preferred processing method for the orebody.”

The results certainly gave confidence to two of Cardinal’s major institutional investors, who increased their stakes in the company this month, buying on-market following the metallurgical update.

Toronto’s 1832 Asset Management (Dynamic Fund) increased its holding from 9.07% to 10.85% and New York-based Van Eck Associates Corporation went from 6.32% to 7.42%.

“We are very encouraged and grateful for their support and believe that they are very happy with the initial size of the deposit, its growth potential and its ongoing metallurgical improvements,” Koimtsidis said.

The momentum continues to build as Cardinal moves to tick off the milestones towards production.

Cardinal’s share price has doubled since mid-November, taking its market capitalisation close to A$155 million (US$119 million), and the company was added to the ASX All Ordinaries Index this month, a list that represents the largest companies in the Australian equities market.

“Our strategy is to complete a scoping study as soon as practical, which will lead to a feasibility study commencing in the second half of 2017,” Koimtsidis said.

“Luckily for us, we already have a well-defined process flow sheet for the orebody so the metallurgical testing programme currently in progress is more of an optimisation programme.

“Our objective is to drive into production as quickly as possible.”