2 Million Ounce Resource - potential to treat lower grade gold
Interestingly, with this week's recent resource upgrade to 1.4 million ounces of gold, if the cut off grade is varied to 0.3g/t gold for the open pit resource and 2.0g/t gold for the underground resource, the total resource increases to 1,974,000 ounces.
We believe Aphrodite could be investigating with another Australian company the potential of a bio heap leach operation that could process the lower grade ore, further enhancing project economics depending on the U.S. dollar gold price or Australian dollar at the time. This could also find favour with other regional or satellite gold deposits.
Analysis
There is wind at Aphrodite's sails, we wouldn't be surprised to see investment from the recently announced discussions and negotiations with Chinese and local groups. The fact no "red flags" have been encountered on the Pre-Feasibility Study, which is at an advanced stage is significant.
Any news on the financing front or bio heap leach initiative or regional processing hub could be expected to add accretion to the market valuation of Aphrodite.
AQQ Price at posting:
3.8¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held