Half Yearly Report

RNS Number : 6797S

Goldstone Resources Ltd

24 November 2011

 



GOLDSTONE RESOURCES LIMITED

("GoldStone" or the "Company")

Half Yearly Report for the period ended 31 August 2011

GoldStone (AIM: GRL), the AIM quoted company focused on gold in West Africa, announces its half year results for the period ended 31 August 2011.

Operational highlights since 1 March 2011:

·     Encouraging drill results received at Homase in Ghana and drilling contractor agreement renewed for a second phase 4,500 metre drilling programme

·     Attributable interest in Homase increased from 51% to 65%

·     Permit wide termite mound sampling results at the Sangola licence area in Senegal have indicated presence of significant gold anomalies

·     Soil sampling at Manso Amenfi in Ghana identified multiple consistent and extensive gold anomalies, some of which appear to run parallel to regional fertile structures

·     The Oyem and Ngoutou licence areas in Gabon have been awarded to the Company's wholly owned Gabonese subsidiary and exploration activities commenced on these permits

Corporate highlights since 1 March 2011:

·     Conditional placing of £4.7 million in November 2011 in order to progress projects during 2012

·     Irrevocable undertaking by Unity Mining, the Company's largest shareholder, to vote in favour of provisions importing takeover protections into the Company's Articles of Association

Jurie Wessels, GoldStone's Chief Executive, commented: "We are encouraged by the ongoing positive results achieved over the last six months at all our projects.  I am also pleased that we have now placed our relationship with Unity on a sound footing.  With sufficient funds at the Company's disposal to advance the portfolio of projects, 2012 holds much promise for GoldStone."

Enquiries

GoldStone Resources Limited	[phone]
Jurie Wessels / Hendrik Schloemann
Westhouse Securities Limited	[phone]
Tim Feather / Matthew Johnson
Optiva Securities Limited
Jason Robertson	[phone]
Jeremy King	[phone]
Walbrook PR	[phone]
Louise Mason Bob Huxford

Chief Executive's Report

We believe GoldStone offers a good range of projects over the exploration to development spectrum.  The Company holds five projects in three jurisdictions, all of which have good potential to progress to the development stage and the potential to unlock significant value for shareholders.

In Homase/Akrokerri, the Company holds a project with an existing 405,600 ounce resource which may, if the current drilling programme remains positive, be increased.  In addition, in Senegal and Gabon, we have the opportunity of making a Company-transforming discovery.

The period since the year end has been typified by the Company securing its tenements, making significant progress in advancing its projects, increasing its exploration presence at all its projects and in securing funding under difficult market conditions.  This would not have been possible without the hard work of our employees, the good relationships we have built with the regulatory authorities of the three jurisdictions in which we operate and the support of our shareholders.

In Ghana, the Company confirmed the existence of extended high grade shoots underneath the Homase pit and increased its attributable interest in the 405,600 ounce gold resource at Homase/Akrokerri by 14%.  We also identified multiple gold in soil anomalies at Manso Amenfi and received notification of renewals of licencing requirements for our Manso Amenfi and Akrokerri licences.

At the Sangola project in Senegal, a permit-wide termite mound sampling programme was concluded that yielded three large and compelling gold in soil anomalies.  In Gabon exploration efforts are underway to investigate the Company's two licence areas, both of which cover significant, very large and intriguing gold in soil anomalies.

In completing its activities during the reporting period, the Company spent US$1.8 million and the Company currently has £1.2 million cash at hand prior to the completion of the recently announced fundraising.

GHANA PROJECTS

The Homase Licence area is situated within the well-known Ashanti Gold Belt and is located close to Anglo Gold Ashanti's Obuasi mine.  The Akrokerri Licence area adjoins the southern border of Homase Licence and the eastern boundary of the Obuasi gold mine.  Both licence areas, although differing in ownership structure, are dealt with as a geological unit by the Company because the gold mineralisation on both permits has been controlled by the same geological structure and both permits lie in the same geological environment as the Obuasi gold deposit.

GoldStone announced its maiden JORC compliant gold resource estimate of 282,608 ounces for Homase in April 2010.  In June 2011, an announcement adding 123,000 ounces to the resource was made, all of which was contained within the Akrokerri licence area.  The Akrokerri resource, which was estimated from historical drill data, combined with the Homase resource resulting in a total of 8.87 million tonnes of ore at an average grade of 1.42 g/t for 405,600 ounces of gold. 

In June 2011, drilling operations commenced at Homase and in August 2011, the Company announced results from five drill holes.  All of the drill holes intersected significant gold mineralisation and confirmed that the targeted high-grade gold shoot under the northern part of the previously mined Homase open pit extends to a depth of at least 140 metres below the bottom of the dormant pit.  A second set of drill results were announced in October 2011.  These holes confirmed that the previously identified high-grade shoot extends deeper than the previously drilled holes and indicated that a further higher-grade zone previously intersected close to surface may also extend to depth.  A third and previously unidentified zone of widely disseminated gold mineralisation 190 metres below the bottom of the southern part of the pit was also identified.  All intercepts yielded gold values above the 0.5 g/t gold cut-off value applied to GoldStone's 405,600 ounce resource.

The Company, emboldened by its positive drill results, extended the drilling programme at Homase/Akrokerri with a second phase 4,500 metre drilling programme.  To date 4,416 metres have been drilled at Homase/Akrokerri in 18 holes, two of which have been abandoned due to adverse ground conditions or mechanical problems.

GoldStone has, in accordance with the Joint Venture Agreement concluded with Cherry Hill Mining Company in October 2009, increased its holding to 65% by having spent a minimum of US$1 million on exploration in the Homase licence area.  The Company will attain an 85% interest if it is able to successfully complete a feasibility study over the area.  The Company owns 95.1% of the Akrokerri licence through its Ghanaian subsidiary.  Both the Akrokerri and Homase licences are subject to renewal in 2012 and the Directors are not aware of any reason why the licences will not be renewed.

Positive geochemical results at Manso Amenfi, over which GoldStone has a joint venture with Asasemu Mining Limited ("Asasemu Mining"), have led to the identification of a number of gold in soil anomalies in the licence area, some of which trend parallel to nearby gold fertile structures.  A multi-element geochemical investigation is currently underway and an IP geophysical survey is planned, the results of which will assist the Company's geologists to rank the soil anomalies in order to identify areas for further work to delineate drill targets.

GoldStone currently owns a 10% interest in the licence area and has the right to increase its interest to 85% after achieving certain exploration benchmarks. 

SANGOLA: SENEGAL

The Sangola licence, which is wholly owned by GoldStone, lies in the south-eastern corner of Senegal in an established gold province known to geologists as the Kenieba Inlier of Birimian Formation.  The licence area is highly prospective because it is largely unexplored and covers the south-western limits of the Main Transcurrent Shear Zone, or "MTZ", that is known to be responsible for the formation of gold deposits north-east of the licence area.  Exploration of the Kenieba Inlier resulted in the discovery of more than 30 million ounces of gold and north-east of the Sangola Licence the MTZ yielded the 3.4 Moz Massawa deposit (Randgold Resources).

During the past six months the Company has conducted a permit-wide termite mound sampling programme over the licence area and received results which indicate the presence of significant gold anomalies. These anomalies appear to overlie splays off the MTZ or structures parallel to the MTZ.  The Company's efforts in the coming months will be to investigate the identified anomalies further by follow-up surface sampling, trenching and drilling. 

OYEM & NGOUTOU: GABON

The Oyem and Ngoutou licences were granted to the Company in April 2011 and since then the Company has completed a logistical and geological reconnaissance in both licence areas.  Both areas contain artisanal gold workings in the streams that cut through the gold anomalies and both areas are easily accessible by using existing logging roads.  The gold in soil anomaly associated with the Oyem permit in the northern part of Gabon covers a well-known regional geological structure in gold-prospective Archean rocks.  The Ngoutou anomaly in the eastern central part of Gabon correlates with the contact of amphibolite rock and a gneiss, both of which are of Archean age.

A field camp has been erected at Oyem and the building of an exploration camp at Ngoutou will commence early next year.  Geological reconnaissance efforts aimed at identifying targets for deeper drilling have commenced at Oyem and a drilling programme is planned for next year.

PLACING & UNITY

On 18 November 2001, the Company announced that it had conditionally raised approximately £4.7 million at a price of 5 pence per share (the "Placing").  The Placing is conditional on the passing of certain special resolutions, including a resolution which will incorporate provisions of Chapter 5 of the Disclosure Rules and Transparency Rules (the "DTRs") and provisions governing takeovers ("Takeover provisions") into the Company's Articles of Association (the "Articles"). 

The effect of the DTR provisions, if the special resolution is passed, would be that shareholders are required to notify the Company of changes to their holdings in accordance with the DTRs.  The purpose of the Takeover provisions is to include in the Articles provisions governing the conduct of any takeover of the Company.  Because the UK Takeover Code (the "Code") does not apply to GoldStone, certain changes to the Articles have been proposed to require any person, together with anyone acting in concert with them, who becomes interested in shares which carry 49 per cent. or more of the voting rights of the Company to make an offer for the remainder of the Company's share capital.  The proposed provisions further require that such an offer is to made in cash at not less than the highest price paid by the offeror, or any person acting in concert with it, for any interest in the shares in the previous 12 months.

On 7 November 2011 the Company  received an irrevocable undertaking from Unity Mining Limited ("Unity") to vote in favour of proposed changes to the Articles at the forthcoming Annual General Meeting on 5 December (the "Undertaking").  Unity is the Company's largest shareholder holding 75,414,166 ordinary shares, representing a recently increased interest of 33.63 per cent. of the issued share capital.  All the resolutions require a two thirds majority of those present at the meeting in person or by proxy voting in favour of the provisions.

CHANGES TO THE BOARD

In October 2011, Tim Churcher, who was also the Chief Financial Officer of Unity, resigned from the Company's Board.  His resignation followed an announcement by Unity that both Rod Hanson and Tim Churcher would be leaving the Company.  Rod Hanson, who is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Unity, was appointed as a Non-Executive Director of Goldstone on 24 June 2011 and will remain a director of the Company until an alternative appointee nominated by Unity has replaced him on the GoldStone Board.

OUTLOOK

The Company's exciting portfolio of exploration projects will, with the funds raised from the placing, be vigorously explored in the coming months and the Board looks forward to reporting on future progress.

At Homase/Akrokerri we will continue with our resource drilling progamme aimed at upgrading the gold resource.  A second drill rig will be added to the project area to test for any mineralisation under the large gold anomaly that covers the Akrokerri granite intrusion.  In the same area significant artisanal activity has been observed in the granite and at the high-grade quartz vein, which was previously exploited by colonial miners.  In addition to these obvious exploration targets we also intend to delineate the potential continuation of the Homase trend in the Akrokerri license area and will investigate the possibility of mineralisation along structures parallel to the Homase trend.  If these exploration targets yield positive results, the Company hopes to achieve the required resource 'critical mass' that could justify the Company considering the possibility of a stand alone mining operation.

At Manso Amenfi our efforts will be directed at minimising exploration risk by delineating drill targets in areas where gold in soil anomalies appear to coincide with regional structures.  Trenching will be carried out over selected anomalies in order to define drill targets.  If the results are encouraging, the Company will, subject to it complying with its agreed expenditure requirements, be in a position to increase its interest in the licence.

In Senegal, where ongoing geochemistry activity is being undertaken to identify drill targets within the previously recognised gold in soil anomalies, the licence area will be rigorously investigated by an extensive Reverse Air Blast drilling programme.  

At Oyem, where logistical challenges have been largely overcome and where initial scout drilling has commenced, a wide and comprehensive drilling programme is planned to commence next year.   The strong correlation between the consistent 15km long gold-in-soil anomaly and what appears to be a splay off a significant regional structure holds real promise for the Company.  At the Ngoutou licence area, which is typified by an impressive and large gold-in-soil anomaly that correlates with a contact between different rock types and which shows evidence of corroborating artisanal activity, GoldStone will also undertake an aggressive exploration programme in the New Year.

Jurie Wessels

Chief Executive Officer

22 November 2011

GOLDSTONE RESOURCES LIMITED

CONDENSED STATEMENTS OF INCOME

31 August 2011

	6 Months  ended        31 Aug 2011		12 Months ended       28 Feb 2011		6 Months ended      31 Aug2010
	$		$		$
Revenues	16,792		8,621		3,575
Interest receivable	16,792		8,621		3,575
Explorations expenses
Explorations expenses	( 1,801,097 )		( 667,688 )		( 308,657 )
Gross loss	( 1,784,305 )		( 659,067 )		( 305,082 )
Other operating expenses	( 692,921 )		( 885,646 )		( 558,732 )
LOSS FOR THE FINANCIAL PERIOD	( 2,477,226 )		( 1,544,713 )		( 863,814 )
OTHER COMPREHENSIVE INCOME	-		-		-
TOTAL COMPREHENSIVE LOSS FOR
THE FINANCIAL PERIOD	( 2,477,226 )		( 1,544,713 )		( 863,814 )
Loss per ordinary share
Basic and diluted loss per share (cents per share)	( 1.1 )		( 0.7 )		( 0.4 )

GOLDSTONE RESOURCES LIMITED

CONDENSED BALANCE SHEET

31 August 2011

	31 Aug 2011		28 Feb 2011		31 Aug 2010
	$		$		$
FIXED ASSETS
Tangible assets	35,495		38,651		42,910
Investment in a subsidiary	2		1		-
	35,497		38,652		42,910
CURRENT ASSETS
Cash at bank	3,461,510		5,560,395		6,235,761
	3,461,510		5,560,395		6,235,761
CREDITORS: Amounts falling due within one year
Creditors and accruals	436,542		167,678		166,403
Net current assets	3,024,968		5,392,717		6,069,358
TOTAL ASSETS LESS CURENT LIABILITIES	3,060,465		5,431,369		6,112,268
CAPITAL AND RESERVES
Share capital	3,776,592		3,746,214		3,746,214
Share premium	19,572,538		19,426,002		18,820,194
Capital contribution reserve	555,110		555,110		555,110
Share options and warrants reserve	( 676,400 )		( 605,808 )		-
Profit and loss account - (deficit)	( 20,167,375 )		( 17,690,149 )		( 17,009,250 )
SHAREHOLDERS' FUNDS	3,060,465		5,431,369		6,112,268

GOLDSTONE RESOURCES LIMITED

CONDENSED STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN EQUITY

31 August 2011

	6 Months ended             31 Aug 2011		12 Months ended         28 Feb 2011		6 Months ended          31 Aug 2010
	$		$		$
SHARE CAPITAL - £0.01 per value
Beginning of period	3,746,214		2,354,482		2,354,482
Issue of shares	30,378		1,391,732		1,391,732
End of period	3,776,592		3,746,214		3,746,214
SHARE PREMIUM
Beginning of period	19,426,002		13,849,554		13,849,554
Issue of shares	75,944		4,970,640		4,970,640
Fair value of share options	70,592		605,808
End of period	19,572,538		19,426,002		18,820,194
CAPITAL CONTRIBUTION RESERVE	555,110		555,110		555,110
SHARE OPTIONS AND WARRANTS RESERVE	( 676,400 )		( 605,808 )		-
ACCUMULATED DEFICIT
Balance at beginning of period	( 17,690,149 )		( 16,145,436 )		( 16,145,436 )
Net loss	( 2,477,226 )		( 1,544,713 )		( 863,814 )
End of period	( 20,167,375 )		( 17,690,149 )		( 17,009,250 )
	3,060,465		5,431,369		6,112,268

GOLDSTONE RESOURCES LIMITED

CONDENSED STATEMENT OF CASH FLOW

31 August 2011

	6 Months ended             31 Aug 2011		12 Months ended          28 Feb 2011		6 Months ended         31 Aug 2010
	$		$		$
Loss for the financial period	( 2,477,226 )		( 1,544,713 )		( 863,814 )
Adjusted for:
Depreciation	5,943		10,162		3,868
Interest received	( 16,792 )		( 8,621 )		( 3,575 )
Increase in creditors	268,864		63,215		61,941
Net cash outflow from operating activities	( 2,219,211 )		( 1,479,957 )		( 801,580 )
Investing activities
Interest received	16,792		8,621		3,575
Purchase of fixed assets	( 2,788 )		( 30,531 )		( 28,496 )
Net cash (Inflow) / outflow from investing activities	14,004		( 21,910 )		( 24,921 )
Financing activities
Proceeds from issue of ordinary share capital	106,322		6,362,372		6,362,372
Increase / (decrease) in cash	( 2,098,885 )		4,860,505		5,535,871
Cash at the beginning of the period	5,560,395		699,890		699,890
Cash at end of the period	3,461,510		5,560,395		6,235,761

GOLDSTONE RESOURCES LIMITED

EARNINGS PER SHARE

31 August 2011

	6 Months ended             31 Aug 2011		12 Months ended          28 Feb 2011		6 Months ended         31 Aug 2010
	$		$		$
Loss attributable to shareholders	(2,477,226)		(1,530,877)		(863,814)
	No.		No.		No.
Weighted average number of shares	224,276,548		222,377,971		222,377,971
Basic loss per share (cents)	(1.1)		(0.7)		(0.4)

Basic loss per share is calculated by dividing the losses attributable to ordinary shareholders by the weighted average number of shares in issue.

 

END

 

 

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