Guinea’s Kada Gold Project Resource Rises 125% to 2.08 Million Ounces
GUINEA · MINING
Key Facts
What happened: The Kada gold project in Guinea now holds 2.08 million ounces on a 100% project basis, up 125% since 2023.
Who owns it: Asara Resources holds 51% of Kada and can reach 75% by paying for the feasibility study alone.
The catch: At 51%, only about 1.06 million of those 2.08 million ounces are attributable to Asara today.
Where the gold sits: Almost all the Kada resource, 2.04 million ounces, is at the Massan deposit; Bereko holds about 40,000 ounces.
What is missing: Asara has published no grade for the new estimate; the 2023 estimate ran at 0.95 grams per tonne.
What comes next: A definitive feasibility study is due in the second quarter of 2027, and Asara says it is fully funded.
The Kada gold project in Guinea now holds 2.08 million ounces of gold on a 100% project basis. Asara Resources, which holds 51% of the project, reported the 125% increase on Monday 31 August.
Who owns the Kada gold project, and how much of it
Start with the ownership, because it changes what the headline number means. Asara Resources holds 51% of Kada, not all of it.
The company is earning in to 75% by paying for the definitive feasibility study on its own. An earn-in means a partner buys a bigger share by funding work rather than by writing a cheque.
The 2.08 million ounces are counted on a 100% project basis. That is the industry convention, and it describes the whole deposit rather than any one shareholder’s slice of it.
At its current 51%, about 1.06 million of those ounces are attributable to Asara. The other 49% belongs to its partners in the project.
What the resource upgrade actually means
A resource estimate says how much metal is believed to be in the ground. It is not a commitment to mine any of it.
The 2023 estimate was about 923,000 ounces. The new one is 2.08 million, a rise of 125%.
The more useful detail is the quality of the count. Of the 2.08 million ounces, 1.27 million now sit in the indicated category.
Indicated resources rest on denser drilling and carry more confidence about grade and continuity. Inferred resources, which dominated the 2023 estimate, are the loosest category of the three.
One deposit, and one number still missing
Almost all the metal sits in one place. Massan holds 2.04 million ounces, including the entire 1.27 million ounce indicated resource.
Bereko, the second deposit, accounts for roughly 40,000 ounces. Kada is effectively a one-deposit project for now.
The upgrade follows a drilling campaign of about 73,000 metres, concentrated at Massan. That is a substantial programme for a small company on a single asset.
One number is missing, and it is an important one. Asara has not published a grade for the new estimate.
Grade is how much gold each tonne of rock contains, and it decides whether the rock is worth digging. The 2023 estimate ran at 0.95 grams per tonne.
Without a grade, an ounce count is not a usable resource statement. Readers should treat the 2.08 million ounces as incomplete until Asara publishes one.
The gap between a resource and a mine
A definitive feasibility study is the document that turns a deposit into an investment case. It normally rests on reserves rather than on resources.
Reserves are metal that has been shown to be economic to dig out. Kada has not reached that point.
The rise in indicated resources gives Asara a base from which to keep converting. Further work at the site is already planned.
The study is scheduled for the second quarter of 2027. Until then the company must keep drilling and finish the engineering and environmental work a study needs.
The money for the study is already in the bank
Asara reported A$53 million (about US$38 million) in pro-forma cash and no debt at 26 August 2026. The company says the feasibility study is fully funded.
Pro-forma cash means the balance once a recently completed fundraising is counted in. Asara raised A$60 million (about US$43 million) earlier this year for exactly this work.
Australian dollar figures here are converted at A$1 = US$0.716. That is the rate on 3 September 2026 from open.er-api.com.
The raise itself settled in May 2026, when the Australian dollar was weaker against the US dollar. So these US$ figures are today’s equivalents, not the dollars Asara actually banked.
The open question is therefore not whether Asara can pay for the study. It is what happens after it.
Building a mine costs far more than studying one. That bill lands after the study is delivered.
That is the point where shareholders usually get diluted or a bigger partner arrives. Any doubt about funding belongs there, not to the study itself.
Why this matters more to Guinea than to Asara
Guinea is better known abroad for bauxite and for the Simandou iron ore project. Its gold sector is large but unusually informal.
Guinea produced roughly 2.3 million ounces of gold in 2025, on government figures reported by Reuters. The government says artisanal miners produced 1.59 million of those ounces.
Artisanal mining means small crews working by hand or with light equipment, often outside any formal licence. Industrial mines such as Siguiri and Kiniero account for the rest.
That split matters for public revenue. Artisanal output is harder to tax, harder to trace and harder to budget against.
Every new industrial mine moves a slice of production into the formal, taxable column. That is why a small company’s resource statement is a national story.
A junior company in a heavyweight market
Asara Resources is a small Australian explorer, not a major miner. Explorers of this size usually prove up a deposit and then raise development money or sell the asset.
That is a normal and useful function in mining. It also means the eventual owner of Kada may not be the company that found it.
The 49% Asara does not hold is a further complication. Any sale or development decision has to work for its partners too.
West African gold has been an active market for exactly that reason. Companies have been trading assets across Ghana, Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea as costs and licence terms shift.
What to watch next
The first marker is how much of the indicated resource converts into reserves. The second is whether Asara publishes a grade for the new estimate.
The third is Conakry, Guinea’s capital and the seat of its mining policy. The rules there have been moving fast.
Guinea banned exports of raw gold in June 2026. President Mamadi Doumbouya announced the ban on 19 June.
The aim is to force refining to happen inside the country. Any mine built at Kada would have to plan around that rule.
The government has also been reworking the terms on which foreign companies hold mining titles. A development decision at Kada would be taken under whatever rules apply in 2027.
Frequently Asked Questions
How large is the Kada gold project resource now?
Asara Resources reported 2.08 million ounces of mineral resources on 31 August, up 125% from roughly 923,000 ounces. That is a 100% project basis figure, and 1.27 million ounces of it sit in the indicated category.
Who owns the Kada gold project?
Asara Resources holds 51% of Kada and is earning in to 75% by sole-funding the definitive feasibility study. At 51%, about 1.06 million of the 2.08 million ounces are attributable to Asara.
Where is Kada, and how is the resource split?
Kada is in Guinea, and almost all of its 2.08 million ounces sit at the Massan deposit. Massan holds 2.04 million ounces including the entire 1.27 million ounce indicated resource, while Bereko accounts for roughly 40,000 ounces.
What grade is the Kada resource?
Asara has not published a grade for the new estimate. The 2023 estimate ran at 0.95 grams of gold per tonne of rock.
Can Asara pay for the feasibility study?
Asara reported A$53 million (about US$38 million) in pro-forma cash and no debt at 26 August 2026. It says the feasibility study is fully funded, and the open question is the capital needed to build a mine afterwards.
When could a mine be built?
A definitive feasibility study is scheduled for the second quarter of 2027. No construction or production timetable has been published.
Is a resource the same as a reserve?
No. Reserves are metal shown to be economic to mine, and a feasibility study normally rests on reserves rather than resources.
How important is gold to Guinea?
Guinea produced roughly 2.3 million ounces of gold in 2025, on government figures reported by Reuters. The government says artisanal miners produced 1.59 million of those ounces, with industrial mines making up the rest.
Has Guinea changed its gold export rules?
Yes. President Mamadi Doumbouya announced a ban on exports of raw gold on 19 June 2026, intended to push refining inside the country.
Connected Coverage
Guinea’s resource economy has been reshaped by bulk minerals first, as Guinea’s bauxite boom making it Africa’s fastest-growing economy and Simandou shipping its first iron ore to China both showed. The wider West African gold market is being reshuffled at the same time, which is the backdrop to Gold Fields refusing to give up Tarkwa, and our pillar Africa: The New Scramble tracks the contest for African minerals.
This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI · Report an error · Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Editor-in-Chief
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