Midlands Minerals’ Founder, President and CEO Kim Harris
Midlands Minerals is a lively, very interesting junior company primarily focused on broadening its resources in the politically stable countries of Ghana and Tanzania, the second and third largest gold producers in Africa respectively. The management and technical teams at Midlands are more than qualified to realize future expansion of not only their company’s value but also its visibility in the highly competitive realm of gold mining. Tack on strictly adhered to and frequently reviewed social and environmental consciousness policies, and you have a spry junior out in the field that elicits promise.
Currently, the center of activity for Midlands Minerals lies in the southwest Paleoproterozoic region of Ghana in the historically proven Ashanti Belt. It is here that the company focuses its attention on flagship project Sian/Kwahu Praso, where a resource of 600,000 ounces of gold from current and previous drilling campaigns will hopefully be built up to 1 million ounces in the months ahead.
Situated slightly to the north of Newmont’s 8.7 million ounce Akyem gold project, Midland’s abutting properties comprise approximately 160 square kilometers. Infrastructure is another advantage to this situation as the Sian project is host to past open-pit producing mines Esaase and Ampeha and are complete with permits, water, electricity and a mill already on the premises.
“We completed a scoping study on the mill and we concluded that we could get it re commissioned and back into operation within six months,” commented Midlands Minerals’ Founder, President and CEO Kim Harris during a recent interview with Metalsnews.com. “We continue to focus on Sian/Praso because once we reach our near-term goal of 1 million ounces, our options widen and we could quickly get back into production.”
Harris, who started private exploration company SIKA Resources in 1996, has a Masters degree from the University of Toronto and Bachelors degree from Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. 25 years of experience conducting business in Africa, with 15 of those years in exploration and mining, provides her with a unique take on Midlands’ strategic gold projects, particularly Sian/Praso, and where they are headed.
To date, the fully-permitted Sian property has a 43-101 compliant indicated gold resource of 322,100 ounces and more than 216,800 ounces inferred. Of the 20,000-plus meters of drilling planned for the current phase of their drilling program, Midlands is more than halfway through and is determined to expand the boundaries of the deposit significantly.
Four recent strikes on the Sian property revealed continuous gold grades that favor positive augmentation of the current resource averaging 2.3 g/t.
“These results confirm the significant potential for expanding the Sian gold deposit and demonstrate potential for much higher gold grades below the 150 meter level. With these diamond drill holes spaced only 50 meters apart, the assays are connecting the dots and expanding the resources,” noted Harris in a recent statement released by Midlands.
Taking into consideration that a multi-million ounce deposit on the Sian/Praso project is of the utmost importance to Harris and company at this stage in their development as a competitive junior, this news is certainly enlightening. To top it off, an airborne survey just conducted over the region pinpointed promising geochemical anomalies that have prompted the placement of an RC rig to begin drilling these new targets.
To the immediate west of Sian/Praso, situated in the Asankrangwa Belt is Midland’s other important occurrence of note in Ghana, the Kaniago Project. Not far from the 1.7 million-ounce strong Keegan Resources gold deposit, as well as proximal to three prolific open pit mines, Kaniago’s 7 kilometers of strike length are host to numerous gold-in-soil anomalies.
Across the continent to the south and east in Tanzania, positioned in the Lake Victoria Goldfields, Midlands also has a 65-square kilometer, 43-101 gold and diamonds project known as Itilima. Both resources are confirmed in the mineralogy of the property and the land is ready to be drilled. Also in the same Lake Victoria district for Midlands are its Lwenge/Geita, Kishapu, and Lalago Gold Projects. Two other properties, Vukene and Kilindi, round out the company’s Tanzania holdings.
Having raised $12.4 million in February, and more than well-financed to complete the 20,000-plus meters of drilling slated for Sian/Praso, does Midlands have its eye on any other properties of promise in the region? Harris responded:
“We’ve got a pretty good portfolio in both Ghana and Tanzania right now and of course opportunities always come up for new acquisitions, and we look at those very seriously. We tend to look at how strategic they are in relation to where we are located because as a small junior company, we have to think about the resources we have, the money as well as the people, and be careful not to spread ourselves too thinly. And we’ll also have to continue to focus as we have.”
At present, Midlands’ stock price tends to pose the biggest challenge to the company but Harris is confident that good drill results and perseverance toward achieving a million ounces will signal the market to take notice and boost the company’s value. Having knowledgeable, strong management with invaluable experience in Africa can’t hurt either.
Concerned with the company being undervalued, Harris and company implemented a limited buyback program this past summer, repurchasing approximately 1,8 million shares to date. The company remains well-financed to complete all of its drilling as planned, including drilling of the new airborne targets.
With only 400,000 ounces to go, Midlands is looking forward to completing its drilling program on schedule, and believes it can hit its 1 million ounce target by the end of this year.
For more information, visit www.midlandsminerals.com
1210 Sheppard Avenue East
Suite 302
Toronto, Ontario
Canada
M2K 1E3
Phone: +1 (416) 492-6992
Fax: +1 (416) 492-6993
Email: info@midlandsminerals.com
Ghana:
Aviation House
Suite 203
P.O. Box 30679, K.I.A
Accra, Ghana
Phone: +233-(0)-21-772-441
Fax: +233-(0)-21-776-734
Email: info@midlandsminerals.com
Tanzania:
P.O. Box 1175
Shinyanga, Tanzania
Email: info@midlandsminerals.com