The Company has signaled its intention to become an intermediate gold producer. Internal growth at Chirano coupled with the acquisition of the Tasiast gold mine in Mauritania should result in the Company's production profile growing significantly. In addition, with the repayment of the Chirano project debt and the unwinding of the related gold hedge forward contracts, the Company will move into 2008 debt free and un-hedged.

The 33% increase in open pit ore reserves at Chirano clearly demonstrates the Company's exploration success to date. This increase is significantly higher than the ounces than have been mined at Chirano to date. The potential to further increase surface resources and reserves is considered to be excellent. Recent exploration results from below the current optimized pits at Obra, Akoti and Tano further illustrate the potential for further high grade discoveries at depth on the Chirano mining lease. Exploration is ongoing, testing these discoveries and new anomalies along strike and between existing pits at Chirano.

The Akwaaba deposit at Chirano shows potential to deliver near term high grade underground gold ounces to the Chirano operation. These ounces could materially improve the economics of the mine and the mine life at Chirano. The Company is now in the final stages of the tender process for the underground development at Akwaaba. It is anticipated that development of the Akwaaba underground mine could double monthly gold production at Chirano.

As mining at Chirano has progressed it has become apparent that the ore in certain deposits is harder than originally anticipated. This has resulted in reduced throughput in the milling circuit with a correspondent increase in milling costs. To mitigate this issue a portable secondary crushing system has been installed. This measure is aimed at reducing the size of material entering the Mill and reducing the amount of oversize material being fed into the circuit. The portable system will be replaced by a permanent operation as part of a plant expansion to handle the increased throughput from the Akwaaba underground operation. It is expected that the plant expansion and associated redesign of the crushing system will reduce overall processing costs and increase recoveries.

The Chirano 2007 production and financial targets have been affected by power cuts from the Ghanaian national grid. With normal rainfall levels during the third quarter, the Company looks to continued and steady power availability going forward. However, the local supply of power is ultimately outside the Company's control.

The Tasiast gold mine was officially opened by the President of Mauritania, His Excellency Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, on July 18, 2007 with representatives of the Company in attendance. Tasiast is in the commissioning process with commercial production expected to commence late in 2007. Initial annual production rates are scheduled at 108,000 ounces of gold at an average grade of 3.25 g/t. The Company is finalizing plans for a plant expansion sometime in 2008 which will significantly increase annual production going forward.

The Tasiast deposit is within an extensive gold system that is largely under-explored. The deposit is open along strike and at depth. Tasiast is the first mine in the highly prospective 70 kilometre long by 15 kilometre wide north-south trending Archaen age Aoueouat greenstone belt, which is geologically similar to other Archaen greenstone belts in the world that host major gold deposits. The Tasiast property covers a 60 kilometre strike length of the Aoueouat greenstone belt, virtually encompassing an entire mining district in the country.

Mineral reserves at Tasiast are currently 12Mt @ 2.7 g/t Au for 1.04 million contained ounces. An extensive exploration program is underway at Tasiast towards converting Inferred resources (18.6Mt tonnes @ 1.94 g/t Au containing 1.2 million ounces gold) into mineral reserves. A new resource/reserve estimate for Tasiast is expected in the first quarter of 2008.