GoldStone kicks off project to restart Ghana mine shut for 100 years

Shares in GoldStone Resources (LON:GRL) jumped Friday after the gold miner announced it had began a project to potentially reopen the Akrokeri mine in Ghana, which has been shuttered for over a century.

The old underground mine is located within the Akrokeri prospecting licence held by GoldStone, about 1.5 km south of two proposed pits. It was shut down in 1909, due to a high inflow of water.

In the five years previous to its closure, it produced 75,000 ounces of gold from 104,000 tonnes of ore, equal to a recovered grade of 24 grams per tonne, according to the Ghanaian Minerals Commission.

Since then, two drilling campaigns were undertaken by Birim Goldfields in 1996 with nine diamond drill holes totalling 2,000 metres and Pan African Resources in 2008, comprising 10 diamond drill holes totalling 3,200 metres. This drilling encountered previously unknown, narrow high-grade quartz veins, with samples up to 51 grams per tonne.

Map: GoldStone Resources.

Goldstone said it had located the core drilling by Birim and Pan African Resources, which is incomplete. Re-logging is underway and further assaying of the core will be undertaken if appropriate, it noted.

"We continue to review all the historical data for our licences, and this has lead to the re-examination of the former mine which we are really excited about," chief executive Emma Priestley said in the statement. "There is a huge opportunity to find and exploit an existing resource and also expand on these resources, not to mention the huge value in the existing infrastructure and underground development," she added.

The company stock rose 10% on the news in London, trading at 2.15 pence Friday at 2:16PM local time. It has climbed almost 54% in the past year.