Volta boasts hefty West African portfolio

Volta Resources (VTR-T, VLTAF-O) is proving that keeping in touch with old friends can be a boon to business.

Victor King and Kevin Bullock met in the mid-1990s in Ghana’s capital of Accra, while working for Birim Goldfields and Iamgold (IMG-T, IAT-N), respectively.

While Bullock went on to become president of Goldcrest Resources and establish projects in Burkina Faso and Australia, King stayed in Ghana, building one of the largest land positions of any junior in the country.

But when Goldcrest sold its Youanmi gold property in Western Australia early in 2007, it was left with a good amount of cash and a desire to focus on West Africa.

Bullock and King got to talking.

With Birim Goldfields long on properties in Ghana but short on funds, the idea of a 50-50 merger between Birim and Goldcrest began to take hold.

“It was the right thing to do,” says Bullock, who now serves as Volta’s chief executive and president, while King serves as chief officer of operations. “There are so many companies with valuable projects in the region that are just sitting there and not getting any traction . . . You need scale to get noticed.”

With $20 million in cash and equivalents and 29 properties, the merger has formed a junior with some heft.

But with a large portfolio spread over two countries, appropriately distributing funds among Volta’s projects can be a challenge.

“It sounds like a lot of projects, and it is a lot, but not when they’re managed properly,” Bullock says. “We’ll move the top four to six projects forward, the bottom ones that aren’t producing will be dropped and the ones in between will be joint ventured.”

Currently, the Tinga project in Ghana enjoys favoured status. The project has an indicated resource of 1.3 million tonnes grading 3.61 grams gold for 155,000 oz. and Bullock says it will get 25% of the exploration budget slotted for the Ghana projects this year.

In Burkina Faso, Volta’s key project is Gaoua, a copper-gold porphyry deposit where two diamond-drill rigs are currently turning. To date, 12,000 metres have been drilled on the project with 12,000 more expected by the end of the year. Bullock says he expects the first National Instrument 43-101 resource estimate on the project to be finished by year-end, as well.

With roughly $7 million to spend on exploration for the rest of the year — $2.3 million of that will go into Ghana and $3.5 to Burkina Faso — Bullock says the company’s cash position should last it for the next two years.

Another project that will be eating up some of those exploration dollars is Kampti 3 in Burkina Faso.

Recent assay results were highlighted by four separate drill holes returning: 8 metres grading 12.34 grams gold from 102 metres depth; 8 metres grading 11.81 grams gold from 59 metres; 14 metres of 2.77 grams gold, from 62 metres; and 5 metres of 5.21 grams gold from 29 metres.

Word of the results helped bolster company’s shares by 4 to 62 on roughly 80,000 shares traded.

The drill program was composed of 38 reverse-circulation holes drilled to a maximum depth of 110 metres.

Rather than a heavy reliance on geophysics, targets for the program were chosen in large part by following the trusted noses of artisanal miners in the area. Both areas Volta has drilled have seen heavy artisanal activity.

And while meetings between artisanals and foreign companies can turn prickly, Bullock says relations have been amicable thus far.

“We hire them to dig trenches and do other part-time work. So right now they welcome us,” he says. “There aren’t many places in West Africa where you won’t have to deal with them, so it is a process you have to go through.”

He adds that artisanals wouldn’t be expected to leave until after a prefeasibility study was finished.

“There’s no point in upsetting anything right now,” he says. “We’ll work around them and with them.”

Volta currently has roughly 53 million shares outstanding; its stock has traded between 55 and $1.10 over the past 52 weeks.