Newcore Gold’s flagship asset is the Enchi Gold Project, located in Ghana. Can you give us some of the major highlights of the project?
Our Enchi Gold Project in Ghana is a project underpinned by a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) study with robust economics, along with further district scale exploration potential, located in a top-tier mining jurisdiction that hosts numerous multi-million-ounce gold mines.
The PEA completed in mid-2024 highlighted the robust economics at Enchi and the opportunity to build a mine with strong cash flow leverage to the rising gold price environment. The PEA provided a base case assessment of developing Enchi as an open pit, heap leach operation, processing 8.1Mtpa utilizing contract mining. At a gold price of US$1,850/oz, the PEA generated an after-tax NPV5% of US$371M and after-tax IRR of 58%; at a gold price of US$2,350/oz the PEA generated an after-tax NPV5% of US$632M and after-tax IRR of 92%. Initial capital costs were estimated at US$106M, including a 20% contingency. The PEA also highlighted an average annual gold production profile of ~122,000oz over a nine year mine life.
Our Enchi Gold Project further benefits from significant exploration potential. Enchi covers 248km2 along a prolific gold belt that hosts multi-million-ounce gold mines, with the district scale exploration opportunity at Enchi largely underexplored and untested.
Newcore recently completed a significant upsized fundraise from C$12M to C$15M. Can you tell us about the fundraise and what the upsize suggests in terms of support and interest in the Enchi Gold Project?
We are thrilled to have raised C$15M in February 2025. With the existing cash-on-hand, we are well positioned with approximately C$17M of cash in the bank post-closing of the financing. The majority of the funding was with institutional, long-term value focused funds. This included both new institutional investors as well as strong support from Newcore’s existing institutional shareholder base. Our institutional share ownership grew to 55%, from 45% previously, on the back of completing the financing. This highlights the strong value potential that our institutional investors see in continuing to unlock the value of our Enchi Gold Project through advancing the development path at Enchi while concurrently continuing to advance the exploration.
The participation and size of the financing also highlights strong support for the leadership team at Newcore. The management and board of directors have a proven track record in the mining sector and are aligned with shareholders through an ~15% equity ownership.
Newcore is funded to complete a 35,000m drill programme that is underway at our Enchi Gold Project, as well as a pre-feasibility study (PFS) for the Enchi Gold Project which we are targeting for completion in H1 2026. With the potential for an additional ~C$14M in proceeds from warrant exercises in the next 12 months, Newcore is now well funded to advance our Enchi Gold Project towards a construction decision while also continuing to defi ne the exploration potential across the district scale property.
On the back of completing the equity financing, you increased the size of your drill programme from 10,000m to 35,000m. What is the strategy behind the drilling?
Drilling is a key component in continuing to advance the development of Enchi and is a key component of the work to be completed prior to commissioning a PFS in H2 2025. The additional funding has allowed us to expand the drill program to also include drilling on earlier-stage exploration targets, along with drilling focused on continuing to defi ne the high-grade potential at depth.
We are thrilled to be increasing the size of our drill programme at Enchi to 35,000m on the back of a very successful equity financing which was led by strong support from both new and existing institutional shareholders. We are in a very strong financial position to continue to drill and advance the development of Enchi, with a focus of unlocking the district scale opportunity at Enchi while concurrently advancing the development of the Project towards a PFS.
Luke Alexander, President and CEO of Newcore Gold
The first phase of drilling will continue to focus on resource growth and resource conversion, a key component of the work required to commission a PFS later in 2025. The expanded drill programme will then also include a subset of drilling to continue to define the resource growth potential across the district scale property. Enchi covers 248km2 along a prolific gold belt that hosts multi-million-ounce gold mines, with the district scale exploration opportunity at Enchi largely underexplored and untested. All deposits and pre-resource targets remain open along strike and at depth. We believe that not only is there a strong opportunity to grow the resource base from the near surface potential at Enchi which would extend the heap leach mine life, but longer-term there is substantial potential to grow the resource base from exploration of the sulphide mineralization at depth. Enchi is still underexplored with the average vertical depth of the pits contained in the PEA only defined down to an approximate depth of 75m and the majority of drilling to date testing an average depth of only 125m. The gold mines that are located along trend with Enchi – including Asante Gold’s Chirano and Bibiani mines, as well as Newmont’s Ahafo mine – are defined in excess of 1km below surface, highlighting the strong longer-term potential to define additional resources at Enchi to depth.
With the expanded drill programme, alongside a focus on further de-risking and moving Enchi towards a PFS, we haven’t lost sight of defining the larger potential that exists across the property with the opportunity to continue to explore the deeper sulphide potential while also drilling and growing the earlier stage near-surface targets across the property.
As at mid-March 2025, for the 2024-2025 drill programme, Newcore has reported the results for 10,632m in 87 holes from drilling completed on the Boin and Sewum deposits. What are the key highlights from the results released to date?
The drilling reported to date has focused on the Boin and Sewum Gold Deposits, the two largest deposits defined at Enchi. This drilling targeted near-surface oxide and shallow sulphide mineralization, with a primary goal of infill drilling for resource conversion to improve the confidence level of the existing mineral resource estimate (MRE). The key achievements from the drilling to date include:
- Wide zones of gold mineralization encountered within both the oxidized and sulphide mineralization, with higher-grade intervals
- Mineralization encountered outside of the current limits of the pit constrained mineral resource estimate, providing an opportunity for resource growth
- Intervals of high-grade gold continue to be encountered within broader zones of mineralization, with the highest-grade gold interval to date intersected at Enchi (KBRC301 at Boin intersected 204 g/t Au over 1m)
Highlight intercepts encountered at Boin include:
- Hole KBRC288 intersected 1.96 g/t Au over 62.0m from 139m, including 2.31 g/t Au over 25.0m from 139m, and 2.23 g/t Au over 28.0m from 171m which was intersected outside the limits of the pit that constrains the current MRE.
KBRC288 also ended in mineralization - Hole KBRC307A intersected a wide zone of gold mineralization of 3.36 g/t Au over 28.0m from 120m, including a higher-grade structure of 37.58 g/t Au over 2.0m from 133m within a broader zone of 7.76 g/t Au over 11.0m from 132m
Highlight intercepts encountered at Sewum include:
- SWRC194 intersected 1.85 g/t Au over 62.0m from 1m in the oxide/transition zones, with a higher-grade interval of 8.36 g/t Au over 10.0m from 13m
- A second intercept within hole SWRC194 intersected 0.75 g/t Au over 68.0m from 99m in the upper sulphide zone, including 1.15 g/t Au over 14.0m from 102m
What are the next steps for Newcore Gold and what can investors expect near-term?
Newcore continues to focus on de-risking the development of its Enchi Gold Project. With a strong treasury of C$17M, the company is fully funded to aggressively drill the Enchi Gold Project while concurrently advancing the project towards completion of a PFS in H1 2026. Key de-risking work to be completed as part of the PFS will include hydrological, baseline, geotechnical, and engineering studies that are crucial to advancing the development of the project.
The company continues to be well supported by long-term value focused institutional investors, along with its management and board of directors that hold an 15% equity interest in the company. We are excited to have a 35,000m drill programme underway and over the course of 2025 and into 2026 investors can expect steady news flow with results from the drill programme that is underway along with updates on the on-going development work such as metallurgical testwork results.
We are excited about not only the development potential of the project, in a pro-development jurisdiction, but also the longer-term district scale potential that exists across the property. We look forward to continuing to unlock that value with advancement of the project towards a construction decision while also continuing to unlock value through concurrent exploration.
