READ: As M&A premiums soar, let’s cast our eyes over some of...

READ: As M&A premiums soar, let’s cast our eyes over some of history’s s**ttest mining deals

So it seems with the ASX-listed gold sector’s foray into North America, which has so far been remarkably consistent in its tragedy. They may all work out someday, somehow, but look at Northern Star’s (ASX:NST) Pogo, Evolution’s (ASX:EVN) Red Lake, Silver Lake’s (ASX:SLR) Sugar Zone and St Barbara’s (ASX:SBM) Atlantic Gold and marvel at the furnace that has burnt investors’ cash into ashes to scatter wistfully into the Great Lakes.

It’s all mystified West African Resources (ASX:WAF) executive chairman Richard Hyde, who has seen gold producers literally fly over the $80 million of cash his Sanbrado mine in Burkina Faso is churning out each quarter, along with similar top-tier assets like those being mined at low costs by peers like Perseus Mining (ASXRU).

“So our business is not driven by M&A bankers. And I think that’s the thing, like a lot of these groups that went to Canada, they were pitched ideas by M&A bankers saying you should use your market cap to buy assets in North America because … the relative valuations are higher in Australia per ounce,” he said.

“So you can you can buy accretive ounces in North America, which is what they did. So Northern Star, St Barbara, Evolution, they all went and did it and I don’t think any of them have worked.

“So I’m a geologist. So geology comes first. I kind of joked about in my presentation that I probably should have gone to Argentina because they’ve got rugby, wine and steaks. But, you know, I went to West Africa as a 24-year-old geologist.”

Are West African miners undervalued? It’s been a massive talking point around the traps in Kal.

READ: Diggers and Dealers: Are you sleeping on West Africa? This 5Moz gold explorer suggests you take a closer look

West African Resources (ASX:WAF) share price today: