” A Story Worth Catching Up On ”
Chaarat Gold are no strangers to the E&P scene yet the company has hardly been in vogue with investors over recent years,however recent updates from the company coupled to an increased appetite in physical gold suggests investors should perhaps now run the rule over a number of gold themed opportunities across the markets. Chaarat gold has endured the same lack luster performance as many of its peers, the long-awaited DFS (Definitive Feasibility Study) has been the Achilles heel as investors remain paused to pounce.
The company announced on the 3rd February via RNS a number of extracts from its final draft of its DFS which pointed to its AISC (All In Sustaining Costs) of $635/oz which in laymen terms tells us the company has factored in all the uplift costs to recover each ounce of gold. The company also highlights production of 214,000/oz p/a as it runs up to full capacity between years 4-11 over an 18 year period. Granted the obstacle with all potentially lucrative mining operations is debt funding, Chaarat have a milestone based outlook as they plan to scale up its mining project, starting open-pit initially with a below ground fully faceted operation to follow.
The company offers a fully compliant JORC resource of 6.1 million ounces of high quality gold and mineral deposits. The recent construction of an 18km above ground power line through the chatkal valley having already been installed awaiting finalization of its connection to the substation in Kristal. Whilst the company holds a very positive outlook with arguably a conservative / sensible reporting to date it’s quiet clear that the business enters a more active period of its life cycle with recent comments supporting this:
Dekel Golan, Chief Executive Officer of Chaarat, commented:
“The challenges of bringing the Chaarat Project to production cannot be ignored but I am excited as I see our plans start to coalesce. I recently had the pleasure of showing the Chaarat site to our new analyst at Numis. As he reported on his return to the UK, “the puzzle is coming together … the project has significant flexibility and options to ease the development and funding pathway”. With the continued interest of potential joint venture partners and outright purchasers, pending the delivery of the DFS, these are indeed exciting times for one of the largest and best undeveloped deposits in the world.”
Chaarat now trades at 6p or £16m having declined from 32.5p in 2012, an interesting point being the substantial cornerstone investor Fasanara Capital Ltd holding of 25% of Chaarat Gold and backing the company since 2011. Buying junior mining companies are not without risk and whilst the markets commentators have convened once again that fundamental gold plays are now a buy one has to check the number of failed attempts at unlocking the worlds riches. On a binary basis Chaarat appears to hold a torch of opportunity, a failure to attract the eye of buyers or partners as the gold price sours will most certainly be the crux of failure however should nature take its course then Chaarat Gold could be one to watch moving ahead, should you be looking to add some junior gold risk to your portfolio then Chaarat could well be one to follow.
