JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Aim-listed Goldstone Resources has signed an addendum to its agreement with Homase mine joint venture partner Cherry Hill Mining Company to expedite the increase of its interest in the Homase licence.

Under the terms of the addendum, Goldstone's current interest of 65% in the Ghana-based project would increase to 90%.

"In return for $25 000, the company is adding attributable mineral resources of 101 750 oz of gold and hurdling two significant contractual objectives to attain a 90% interest in the Homase licence, thereby obtaining ownership of 93% of the Homase/Akrokerri mineral resource,” Goldstone CEO Jurie Wessels said.

The addendum would also allow Goldstone, a 33.45% subsidiary of exploration and development company Stratex International, to remove contractual hurdles to earn the 90% interest, including the requirement of expenditure towards a feasibility study to earn an 85% interest and further development expenditure to earn an additional 5% interest.

It would also remove the option for Cherry Hill to contribute to development costs to retain a 15% interest in the licence, while removing the deadline to reach an 85% interest, previously set for March 18, 2016, and the option for Cherry Hill to sell up to a 25% interest to a third party if the deadline was not met.

Goldstone was currently conducting an in-fill auger sampling programme over the Homase/Akrokerri project, designed to provide the company's geologists with sufficient density of data and confidence of provenance of gold mineralisation to be able to plan a drilling campaign, with a view to potentially adding to the company's existing 602 000 oz Joint Ore Reserves Committee- (Jorc-) compliant gold resource for the Homase/Akrokerri project.

The Homase licence contributed a total Jorc-compliant resource of 6.83-million tonnes at an average grade of 1.86 g/t for 407 000 oz of gold to the combined project resource.

Further exploration and development costs on the Homase licence would be paid by Goldstone, which also had the option to buy out the remaining 10% interest.