Gold — doré from a single mine, refined to good delivery

From ore to bar

Gold recovered at Asankran is smelted on site in an induction furnace into doré bars averaging 82% gold and 14% silver, each weighing between 18 and 22 kilograms. Bars are serialised, sampled, sealed and moved under insured secure transport to a refinery in Switzerland accredited on the LBMA Good Delivery List.

The refinery returns refined gold at 999.9 fineness to the group’s metal account, from which it is sold. Silver recovered as a by-product is credited against production costs rather than reported as a separate revenue line, because at present volumes it is immaterial to group results.

Product specification

Responsible gold

Gold carries a specific set of supply chain risks — money laundering, conflict finance, undeclared artisanal material entering formal streams — and a correspondingly specific set of controls. Quintel produces gold from a single mine, refines it at a single accredited refinery, and buys no third-party material of any kind. That is the simplest possible chain of custody and it is deliberate.

The operation is audited annually against the LBMA Responsible Gold Guidance through its refinery relationship and applies the OECD Due Diligence Guidance as its governing framework. There is no artisanal or small-scale mining within the Asankran mining lease; where informal mining occurs on adjacent ground, the group’s policy is engagement and support for formalisation through the district authority, not eviction.

Marketing and price exposure

Refined gold is sold at the LBMA afternoon price on the day of allocation. Quintel does not operate a strategic hedge book. Shareholders in a gold producer are entitled to the gold price; a management team that hedges it away is substituting its own price view for theirs, usually badly.

The exception is short-dated forward sales of specific shipments to lock a price between pour and settlement, which is treasury practice rather than a market view, and project-level hedging where a lender requires it as a financing condition. Any hedging that arises from Bagoé project finance will be disclosed at the time it is entered into.

Production record