News

March 17, 2010

West Africa Elbows Its Way Into The Spotlight At The Paydirt 2010 Australian Gold Conference

By Our Man in Oz

Being a prophet in your own country has always been a bit of a burden, a fact that was first mentioned in The Bible, and which has been illustrated most recently by the swathe of Australian gold miners trying to convince investors that they were on to something good in West Africa. For the past 20 years small Aussie exploration companies have been making excellent discoveries in countries such as Ghana, Ivory Coast, Mali and Burkina Faso, only to be ignored back home and eventually forced to shift their stock exchange listing to Canada, or London, or simply to take the easy option, accept a handsome takeover bid, trouser the proceeds, muttering “I told you so”. That very point was made, somewhat more diplomatically, by one of Australia’s most skilled mining experts, Rick Yeates, when he gave a short West African history lesson at the Paydirt 2010 Gold Conference in Perth this week. He went on to explain why the future looks very different.

“Traditionally, gold companies have had to go to extraordinary lengths to convince the Australian market that West Africa is a great place to invest,” Rick told Minesite’s Man in Oz after delivering his formal talk. “But, if you look at what’s been happening with companies such as Perseus, Adamus, Gryphon, Ampella, Azumah, Resolute, and Castle, to name just a few, you start to appreciate that West Africa has arrived in the eyes of Australian investors.”

Not before time, is the retort from...