The Company’s market cap currently stands at around £7.2m (3.2p), or £3m net of cash raised.

Does this price represent value?

Cash aside, the JORC resource at the Homase Permit in Ghana stands at 282,608 ounces, 81% of which is in the measured and indicated categories, within the highly prospective Ghanaian Ashanti gold belt. There is also the Manso Amenfi JV, the Sangola Project in Senegal and applications pending for some substantial licences within Gabon.

The markets are currently quite capricious and Goldstone’s share price has not been immune.  However with the price of gold as a significant driver and Goldstone’s exploration budget looking well covered for some time to come, we thought now would be a good time to catch up with Hendrik Schloemann, Director of Exploration and Jurie Wessels, CEO.

We put a few questions to them , and as usual, they responded enthusiastically.

MM: Recognising all recent developments, can you outline Goldstone’s exploration strategy?

GRL: Any exploration strategy should be guided by the overlying principles of directing meaningful exploration at reasonable cost to attain value within a time frame that suits the circumstances of the company concerned.

With this in mind our first priority is to focus our work towards enlarging the current Homase resource. This will include testing potential down dip and along strike extensions of this gold deposit. This objective, however, has to be weighed up against the need to better understand the regional geology in the larger area to build a sound understanding of any regional exploration targets. Our programme and budget for the next twelve months have been designed to work towards both goals.

The 4000m drill programme should commence shortly and is mainly focused on proving up extensions of the high grade shoots in the Homase gold resource. A few boreholes may also be directed to confirm some of the historical drill data. The results of the VTEM study will enable us to learn more about the regional geology but at the same time may add additional resource drill targets in the Homase pits area. The interpretation of regional historical exploration information will continue but has already firmed up priority areas for regional follow-soil sampling on the Homase permit.

These regional targets may be trenched and drilled later during 2011. Concurrent with these efforts we will also investigate the grass roots potential of Manso Amenfi and Sangola (once the arête is granted) through various desk top studies, geological mapping and soil sampling.

MM: Before the May 28th fund raiser, by our calculations, Goldstone had around £2.5m in the bank. What difference is the extra £2.06m, secured through the subsequent placing, expected to make and how will your overall cash resources be applied within the exploration programme?

GRL: The additional funds will enable us to expedite exploration on the vast and very prospective area covered by the Sangola license and investigate Gabon (if granted). The Gabon licenses would require considerable effort to investigate. The additional funding will ensure that we will not be held up due to a lack of finance once the permits are granted.

MM: With the cash reserves available and an extended exploration phase underway, would you agree that the company has now entered a key value creation phase and at what point do you envisage the value will start to become more apparent?

GRL: Since May 2009 we have equipped the company with some very prospective exploration projects, we have done the marketing to get the share price up and we have raised the finance to do the field work.

Now is the time for exploration and value creation. We have completed a first phase airborne geophysical study over Homase within a few weeks of the last round of financing and a 4000m drill programme will commence subject to us reaching agreement with communities on issues like crop compensation.

Results from this work will become available over the next months. Needless to say, if positive, these results will create value for our share holders. More drilling is scheduled for 2011.

MM: What news flow can investors look forward to during the second half of 2010?

GRL: We hope to bring out some news on the interpretation of the VTEM study, early assay drill results, the Sangola arête, regional and initial soil sampling results from Manso Amenfi and hopefully the granting of our Gabon license. We also hope to consolidate more ground in Ghana.

ENDS

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