What happened
Shares of gold miner Galiano Gold (GAU), formerly known as Asanko Gold, rose as much as 12.7% on July 7. A detailed update on one of the company's core assets was the reason for the gain.
So what
A key piece of Galiano Gold's capital spending in 2020 is focused on its Asanko mine in Ghana. This mine is a 50-50 joint venture with Goldfields Limited (GFI 0.17%) (operated by Galiano) that produced 251 ounces of gold in 2019, which was above expectations. The exploration program has a $10 million budget for 2020. At this point, the company's exploration efforts, intended to replace expected depletion in 2020 and 2021, are about 40% complete.
Image source: Getty Images.
Although the miner's news release is filled with technical details, the key takeaway from the current update is that, as CEO Greg McCunn explained, "Our second set of drill results from our 2020 exploration program were promising. They extend the known mineralization at Abore to the north and justify planned further drilling ...." Essentially, the work so far suggests that the company should keep going. This added to earlier positive results from efforts at a different portion of the mine, about which the company provided details in late June.
Now what
Investors clearly like what they are hearing here lately, since the stock has advanced by roughly 25% since the late June update, with a notable portion of that gain coming today. Still, it's important to remember that Galiano is a relatively small miner with a stock price of roughly $1.50 per share. Small price moves on an absolute basis can lead to large percentage changes for the stock. Although the pair of recent capital investment updates was positive, most investors would probably be better off looking at larger, more established miners, or at more diversified streaming companies.
