Wishbone Gold plc is a gold shipper based in Dubai that matches buyers with small producers in Africa and South America. It began operating in August and shipped 105 kilos (3,380 ounces) in total in December, its peak month.
Richard Poulden, chief executive, said that overall 2016 had been a successful year for Wishbone with good volumes. Wishbone has supply agreements with miners based in Peru, Ghana, Chile and Colombia.
Subsidiary Black Sand management visited Peru and Chile recently, which would provide more opportunities for the company said Poulden while its early stage projects in Honduras and Ghana should move forward.
Wishbone is visiting Ghana in February to discuss other potential opportunities while it is also mulling a move into equipment finances to help deepen its ties with small gold mining companies.
Poulden says that if someone wants to ship gold, Dubai is the place to be. An estimated 40% of physical gold traded in the world moves through Dubai. This gold goes from west to east, from south to north and into and out of Europe, much of the trade ends up in China, but there was also significant business volumes done with India. In short, Dubai is a global hub for the gold trade and anyone looking to enter the market would do well to base there.
This was the rationale that saw Wishbone acquire Black Sand, a company with a licence to trade gold, precious metals and gemstones in Dubai. Poulden believes that using his network of global contacts, gleaned from his time at Sirius Minerals and elsewhere, the group may be able to expand this and source more from other regions.
More importantly, Poulden believes it is at the stage where it can reverse engineer into the supply chain by offering equipment loans to some of its small suppliers.
Note: Full disclosure: Wishbone Gold properties in Australia have been evaluated on an independent basis by I2M Associates, LLC over the past 5 years.
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