The monster deposit that Many Peaks Minerals (ASX: MPK) is likely sitting on at its flagship Ferké Gold Project has demonstrated impressive continuity of mineralisation from surface, while recording increasingly outstanding grades the deeper it gets drilled – having recently hit 45m at 8.58g/t Au from 104m including 25m at 14.8g/t Au from 116m, and 84.8m at 3.01g/t Au from 295.8m, including 7.5m at 9.27g/t Au, as well as 75.0m at 6.11g/t Au from 427m, including 7m at 52.9g/t Au.
MPK has increased its diamond drilling campaign to over 18,500m while simultaneously conducting aggressive RC drilling underneath high priority aircore assays that have grown Ferké’s strike to 9km – which is being undertaken with a strong $20 million cash balance, along with the backing of globally renowned institutional resources investor 1832 Asset Management.
The primary focus of MPK’s exploration in 2025 has been the Ouarigue and subsequently Ouarigue South prospects of Ferké, the latter of which started the year with a strike of 250m and known depth of 140m, but has now grown to over 450m strike and with triple the vertical extent to over 500m – with grades that are growing at depth.
MPK has done an excellent job chasing the deposit down dip, defining vast amounts of unbroken mineralisation that is extending to extreme levels of vertical depth. Considering the deposit’s likely ability to be open-pit mined down to over 400m given the higher gold grades with depth, the economics of these hits are very exciting, and include 230m at 1.2g/t Au from 225m and 87m at 1.68g/t Au including 29m at 3.46g/t Au. With outstanding true widths of mainly between 55-70m throughout the mineralised intrusion, which occasionally narrow to 30m and extend to 100m – a back of the envelope estimate of this part of the deposit reveals million ounce potential.
The drastically improved understanding that MPK now has of Ferké is the perfect springboard to search for Ouarigue South replicas throughout the 9km of strike recently defined by 5,447m of aircore drilling across 172 holes to an average depth of 31m, which hit gold on every single hole. The exploration pioneered by MPK’s Managing Director Travis Schwertfeger has landed the company African gold development legend Mattew Scully as COO – who recently led the successful commissioning and operation of the $600 million, 8.4Mtpa Kiaka Gold Mine in Burkina Faso, as well as the $500 million capex Sissingué and Yaouré gold mines in Côte d’Ivoire.
As an intrusion-hosted orogenic gold system located in northern Côte d’Ivoire, on the eastern margin of the Paleoproterozoic Daloa greenstone belt, Ferké is notably geologically similar to the Bonikro deposit (also in Côte d’Ivoire), which is predominantly an intrusion hosted orogenic style gold system that has produced 1.4Moz at 1.63g/t – and still retains 2.15Moz of resources and 444koz of reserves. Bonikro runs ore through a 2.5Mtpa processing plant that produces at an AISC of US$1,582/oz with recovery rates of 92.8% – and MPK has preliminary bottle roll testwork anticipated in the next month.
Other ASX-listed gold explorers in Côte d’Ivoire provide an exciting benchmark for what MPK could be on the verge of. Two highly relevant examples include African Gold (ASX: A1G), which is currently valued at $174/oz with a 989koz at 2.5g/t resource, and Predictive Discovery (ASX: PDI), which is valued at $214/oz with a 5.5Moz at 1.66g/t resource.
These are relatively high valuations in terms of African gold explorers, but the premiums likely come from further exploration upside potential at A1G and concrete development prospects and PDI – the first of which is a strong factor for MPK, and the latter is set to become a valuation increasing catalyst upon Ferké’s MRE in around 7 months time. If MPK can hit a 1Moz maiden resource with plenty of upside remaining, and command a $174 EV/oz valuation – that would be a drastic increase from the company’s current $87 million enterprise value. If the market starts pricing in a deposit more towards Bonikro’s size, then MPK will be up for a big rerate.
The exact type of key catalysts that drove MPK to its recent highs are on the immediate agenda of the company – but in a much larger capacity. Most of MPK’s gains came from a new high-grade gold shoot discovery to the south of Ouarigue in March, follow-up diamond drilling commenced in April, further extensions at Ouragie South in May that were accelerated with three rigs on site through June, and then the seriously high grade hits at depth that flowed through in August and September.
A cross section that depicts part of the Ouargie South prospect and its standout assays can be seen below, with the repeated down dip extensions that MPK has hit over the past few months of diamond drilling. The assays outline a 65m to 92m true width zone of mineralisation extending from surface to approximately 300m vertical depth:
Source: MPK
Below is another cross section adjacent to and 100m apart from the one above, which shows the mineralised granodiorite body thickening with depth, where MPK have intersected an incredible 75.0m at 6.11g/t Au from 427m, including 7m at 52.9g/t Au and 2m at 15.5g/t Au:
Source: MPK
The Path to a Multi-Million Ounce Deposit is Paved with Gold for MPK
Ferké’s gold system is emplaced in Birimian-age granite-greenstone terrane, and the methods of finding zones of structurally controlled, high-grade mineralisation and larger intrusion-hosted intercepts have been well established at the project.
As well as utilising superb surface trench samples, such as the 114m at 2.5g/t Au including 78m at 3.52g/t Au found at one of the top parts of Ouargie South, MPK recently conducted an extremely successful aircore drilling campaign that extended the confirmed mineralised corridor at Ferké to at least 9km.
By tracing structures and targeting zones of soil contour anomalism above 30ppb Au, while overlaying airborne magnetic geophysics, and using the context of previous diamond and RC drilling – MPK has found a whole raft of potential prospects for further high-grade, bulk tonnage mineralisation similar to Ouargie and Ouragie South.
The broad zones of gold anomalism, which included intrusion material, intersected on multiple lines of drilling indicate a strong mineralising system, and a couple of notable assays were 15m at 0.72g/t from 9m, including 3m at 2.3g/t Au, and 6m at 1.39g/t Au from 9m, including 3m at 2.58g/t Au. These hits have already been followed up with 45 RC holes for 5,200m, and MPK will take this up to 7,000m.
The AC collar locations and highlighted results, which were drilled on 600m to 2.2km spaced lines, can be seen below:
Source: MPK
The Makings of an Institutional-Grade Investment Opportunity
West African gold production has doubled over the past 10 years, reaching 17Mozpa – and Côte d’Ivoire has been the highest growth country in the region with production rising 500% to 1.8Moz. Many major global resources companies have mines there, including US$50 billion Barrick Gold Mining Corp, CAD$13 billion Endeavour Mining and $5.7 billion Perseus Mining.
Rapid permitting, low capital expenditure, abundant hydro power and a skilled workforce characterise Côte d’Ivoire’s fast and efficient development capabilities. Endeavour’s Lafigue Gold Mine went from drilling to construction in only 4 years, poured first gold from its 4Mtpa processing plant just 21 months later in 2024 – and ramped up to its 200kozpa production target within a year at an AISC of just US$1,018/oz, which is expected to drop to US$900/oz.
With 2.7Moz of reserves grading 1.69g/t, the project became incredibly profitable despite a 8.9:1 strip ratio – and had a capital cost of just US$448 million. Ferké’s outstanding grades and growing size have the potential to produce even more attractive economics than Lafigue – and MPK is in the middle of high impact diamond drilling that has potential to keep adding serious ounces.
1832 is one of Canada’s largest asset managers, and is owned by the Bank of Nova Scotia – a C$110 billion financial services giant. While being major holders in many of the world’s biggest gold miners, the asset manager is very active in explorers and is recently well known to Australian investors through its position in Spartan Resources (ASX: SPR), which saw a 1,200% share price increase in just two years before being taken over by Ramelius Resources (ASX: RMS) for $2.4 billion.
1832 also invested $1.6 million into our antimony portfolio company TMG, and has had investments in numerous other ASX-listed explorers, including Andean Silver (ASX: ASL), Exore Resources – which was acquired by Perseus Mining (ASX: PRU), and Kingwest Resources (ASX: KWR) – which was acquired by Brightstar Resources (ASX: BTR).
The incredible recent drilling results and extreme growth potential defined by MPK at Ferké, combined with the thorough understanding of the project and mineralisation style, led 1832 to aggressively buy MPK on market and then cornerstone an overnight placement in July that raised $13.5 million.
There is good reason why this calibre of investor has waited until now to get into MPK. The data produced since the start of the year has drastically increased the size and grade of Ferké, and the endless onslaught of positive results has left nowhere for MPK’s share price to go other than up. With a clear and exciting pathway ahead for the company to continue rapidly expanding its deposit – this trend seems likely to continue.
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Disclaimer: This article is for informational and marketing purposes only, and does not constitute financial advice or a recommendation to invest. All opinions expressed are our own. We may receive fees or other forms of compensation in connection with the publication of this content, and may own shares in any of the mentioned companies. Please do your own research and seek professional advice before making any investment decisions.