The gold mining sector showed promise this year as metal prices remained upbeat, although the first quarter of the year didn’t foreshadow the performance for the rest of the year as the sector pulled back after the summer months.
After all is said and done, after a multi-year losing streak, gold prices remained firm during 2016 as a whole with the price of gold up about 6% on the year thus far. Various gold mining companies including Giyani Gold Corp (TSX-Venture:WDG) followed the positive performance shown by the sector.
Giyani Gold looked particularly good as its stock rocketed during the year. The company also diversified its activities as it entered into the promising battery technology sector. Giyani Gold has various gold and other mineral properties in Africa as well as in Canada.
The company recently provided an update for 2016 as it elaborated about various opportunities pursued by it. Giyani Gold took a bold initiative this year as it made a foray into battery technology sector.
The company focused on exploring and developing raw materials for the batteries.
For this purpose, Giyani Gold is now looking for acquiring a land package in Botswana. The property will be used for prospecting manganese. The company already has two manganese prospecting projects in Zambia. These projects are important as manganese is a key element for the batteries.
The company is also pursuing various collaborations for furthering its mining efforts in Sub Sahara Africa.
Apart from moving into new areas for diversifying its portfolio, the company also undertook various management changes. During the year, the company appointed Dan Crandall as its new CFO. It also made various changes in its board to provide better support to its new endeavour.
Giyani Gold also successfully raised capital as it completed a non-brokered private placement for its 3.45 million common shares. The placement provided Giyani Gold with capital required for carrying out operations and developmental activities.
The company also took initiatives to control its overhead, and improving its profitability. The various measures included reducing employee headcount, reducing office rent and the implementation of outsourcing policies.
All these efforts are likely to have a positive impact on the company’s performance in the coming year.
Earlier this year, the company had announced encouraging developments regarding its prospecting rights for Rock Island in South Africa.
The company’s stock price was a thing of beauty this year as it gained over 344% on the year so far. However, owing to broad market trends, the stock has declined 15% in the past month. With the company’s future prospects and potential improvement in general market sentiment, this stock should be one to watch in 2017.
