JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Aim-listed minerals exploration company GoldStone Resources has entered into a joint venture (JV) with Ghanaian company, Cherry Hill Mining, to develop the Homase prospecting licence, in the Bekwai district of Ghana.

The 115-km² licence area is located within the Ashanti Gold Belt, where more than 70-million ounces of gold have been discovered, the South African-based explorer said in a statement on Monday.

GoldStone would, in terms of the agreement, be entitled to earn an interest in the licence area, subject to the financing of exploration expenditure and making certain participation payments to the Ghanaian company.

A tenement due diligence phase would be undertaken in the next month, during which time the Ghanaian Minerals Commission was expected to confirm that the licence is in good standing.

Once confirmation has been received, GoldStone would pay Cherry Hill a $15 000 participation fee.

This would be followed by a geological and further legal due diligence phase that would take up to five months, which would allow GoldStone to obtain, collate, interpret and assess any available historical data, the company stated.

A target generation phase, to be completed within 12 months, would then be undertaken. GoldStone would pay a $16 000 participation fee at the start of this phase, during which it would also be required to spend at least $200 000 on exploration work to acquire a provisional 10% interest in the licence.

The provisional 10% interest would only become permanent when GoldStone acquired a 51% interest in the project.

Following this, a further exploration phase, which could involve a preliminary drill programme and regional exploration, would be undertaken over a 12-month period.

By spending about $500 000 on this phase of the project, GoldStone could earn a 25% interest. It would also have to pay a $20 000 participation fee for this phase of the project.

To earn a 51% stake in the licence, GoldStone would have to spend a further $800 000 over 12 months or define an inferred resource of any magnitude. A participation fee of $24 000 would be payable to Cherry Hill at the start of this phase.

The South African-based company would be entitled to increase its stake in the licence to 65%, if it spent a further minimum $1-million on exploration work during a next phase or on a prefeasibility study (PFS). A further $30 000 in participation fees would be payable to Cherry Hill.

Following the PFS, the completion of a successful feasibility study over a 24-month period, and a $60 000 participation fee, would earn GoldStone an 85% interest in the project.

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