(Kitco News) Newcore Gold is moving its Enchi gold project in Ghana toward a mining lease and feasibility study. President and CEO Luke Alexander says the market still has not priced in the economics of the project’s June prefeasibility study.
“We think there’s a fundamental disconnect between where our market cap is today relative to the project value that we outlined within that PFS,” Alexander told Kitco Mining on Sept. 22 at the 2026 Precious Metals Summit in Beaver Creek. He put Newcore’s market capitalization at the time at about US$80 million.
Released June 24, the study outlined an open-pit mine feeding a 5.5-million-tonne-per-year carbon-in-leach plant, with contract mining. At the US$3,800 base-case gold price, it showed an after-tax net present value of US$496 million at a 5% discount rate and a 37% after-tax internal rate of return. At US$4,200 gold, the figures rose to US$647 million and 45%. Initial capital is estimated at US$351 million. The mine would average about 104,000 ounces a year over roughly nine years, and Alexander said the first three years average about 130,000 ounces.
That capital estimate is more than triple the US$106 million in Newcore’s 2024 preliminary economic assessment, which used heap leaching, and the shares fell when the study came out. Alexander stands by the switch. “CIL projects are the standard project that you see built around the world, and specifically in Ghana and in West Africa,” he said. Some holders preferred the old plan. “But that group of shareholders who were focused on heap leach, I think, were disappointed by some of the numbers, especially the increase in CapEx, and as a result, we did see the stock trade off on the day.”
Others have taken a closer look. “We have seen a lot of interest come in from a number of very technically focused groups as well as strategic groups who recognize all the de-risking work that did happen,” Alexander said. A strategic investment could help close the valuation gap, he said, as could a takeover. “Someone comes along and makes a bid for the entire company because that disconnect is too large, and that’s a potential outcome as well.”
Higher gold prices lift the numbers sharply. “One of the things our project also provides is tremendous leverage to the gold price,” Alexander said. The study’s sensitivity table puts the after-tax NPV at US$963 million at US$5,000 gold.
Ghana itself has drawn more scrutiny. “I’d say in 2026, we’ve been asked more about Ghana than we have in the last six years since I joined as CEO of the company,” Alexander said. He said recent policy changes, including a sliding-scale royalty and a requirement to use contract miners, are already built into the study. “The advantage we have in Ghana today is all of that is in the rearview mirror,” he said. Other jurisdictions worry him more. “Where I would be more nervous is countries that have not yet changed their mining code.”
None of the 2026 drill results are in the study. Its resource included only the first 28,000 meters of an 80,000-meter program, which Alexander described as “ultimately a data point in time.” By the time of the interview, Newcore had released 47,000 meters of results and had about 33,000 meters left to report, typically “every four to six weeks,” he said. All of it will feed an updated resource and the feasibility study.
Some of the best intercepts have come since the PFS. In mid-September, hole KBRC411 at the Boin deposit returned 69.0 meters of 2.59 grams per tonne gold from 58 meters, including 24.0 meters of 6.41 g/t. On Oct. 6, Newcore reported that hole KBRC407 at Boin cut 1.16 g/t over 41.0 meters from 2 meters, including 2.54 g/t over 13.0 meters, in oxide material outside the reserve pit. As of that release, the program had reported 50,470 meters in 319 holes.
Newcore also wants higher grades earlier in the mine life. Alexander said the company has identified material grading about 0.7 to 0.8 g/t within its pits that could displace lower-grade feed in years four through six. “So that’s something that we’re focused on, is moving additional higher grade material closer to the front end of the mine plan,” he said. Deeper holes point to longer-term potential. “With some of the deeper drilling down below, call it 150, 200 meters, we’ve started to identify some of those high-grade feeder zones.”
The PFS gave Enchi its first reserves, 1.06 million ounces at 0.64 g/t, and with them the ability to apply for a mining lease. “With those reserves, we are now able to apply for a mining lease,” Alexander said. He said the government sees Enchi as “one of the two most advanced projects in the entire country from a large-scale mining perspective,” in a region with no operating mine. Hydrological, geotechnical, environmental, and metallurgical work continues toward the feasibility study.
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