Avanti Gold’s flagship asset is the Misisi project in the Fizi territory of South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo, roughly 250 km south of Bukavu and 180 km north of Kalemie along the Kibara belt. The main deposit, Akyanga, is an orogenic, structurally controlled quartz vein system with an inferred resource of 3.1 Moz at 2.37 g/t gold. The company also holds the Kraaipan ground in South Africa, which is dormant. I spoke with CEO Mohamed Cisse, and we covered the 42,000 m 2026 drill program, the treasury and financing plans, the ownership structure and MMG dilution, permitting, security and community arrangements, and the path to a PEA.
TL;DR:
The plan is to expand the 3.1 Moz inferred resource with 42,000 m of drilling this year, put out a resource update by the end of 2026, and deliver a PEA in early 2027, which is not funded by the last raise. He told me the C$25M raised in October 2025 at C$0.50 gets them roughly halfway through phase 2, so another financing is coming during phase 2, likely a mix of private placement and a strategic investor. Drilling is running about two months behind the original schedule because of DRC logistics, with samples shipped to a lab in Mwanza, Tanzania, which can take a month just in transit. First 2026 assays came out the morning of the interview, including 20 m at 0.9 g/t with 3 m at 6.2 g/t inside it in hole MSDD145, drilled to about 330 m versus the previous deepest hole at 270 m to 280 m. He said visible gold was logged in three holes between roughly 280 m and 300 m, with those assays still pending, and expects results to improve from here. He is targeting over 70% conversion of the inferred material, tightening spacing from 200 x 200 m to 100 x 100 m and then 50 x 50 m, and says 5 Moz at Akyanga is achievable, with another roughly 40,000 m needed beyond this year to support the larger district scenarios he described.
What have they done for shareholders lately?
Since the management change and the October 2025 financing, they cleared about US$3.5M of legacy liabilities left by prior owners, including unpaid contractors and outstanding permit fees, and he says the company now sits at zero liabilities with the permit in good standing. They restarted drilling in April after targeting February, ramped from two rigs to four with two more arriving, and have about 25 geologists plus 40 local hires on site. About a quarter of the 15,000 m phase 1 is drilled, with over 3,000 m of core at the lab awaiting assays, and the first results were released the day of the interview. On the ground they changed the access route to come in from the south through Tanganyika rather than from Bukavu, repaired about 20 km of the 180 km road (travel time cut from about a week to two days), stopped illegal mining while allowing hand-panning artisanal work in defined areas, and are negotiating a five year community terms of reference document. They also announced a shareholder rights plan about 24 hours before we spoke, which he said was routine governance rather than a response to any approach, exercisable only if a party crosses 20% and subject to ratification at the AGM.
How much money do they have and what are they spending it on?
The company raised C$25M in October 2025 at C$0.50 with a half warrant at C$0.65, following a C$1.4M to C$1.5M placement at 3 cents in July 2025. He said all the 5 cent warrants have been exercised and the average warrant strike now sits at about 68 cents, with roughly 37 million warrants, 6.6 million options and 15 million RSUs against 272 million fully diluted shares. At the July fiscal year end they had about C$15M left after settling liabilities. Spending is going into the 42,000 m program, which is coming in at about US$230 to US$250 per metre all in against an original budget near US$350, with G&A running roughly US$110 to US$130 per metre on top, marketing budgeted at US$200,000 to US$300,000 for the year, and an annual permit fee of about US$0.5M on Misisi. Kraaipan costs nothing to hold. The money does not cover the PEA, and he expects to be raising during phase 2, which starts almost immediately.
Upcoming catalysts
Technical: further assay results released in batches of four or five holes as they arrive, including the three holes with visible gold at depth; completion of phase 1 around August or September; a resource update by the end of 2026 incorporating the new drilling, a possible cut-off change from 0.5 g/t to 0.4 g/t and a higher gold price assumption than the US$1,500 used in the current estimate; and metallurgical, geotechnical, mineralogical and hydrogeological work running alongside the drilling.
Operational: phase 2 (27,000 m) starting in mid to late August with six rigs expected, an on-site sample prep lab, and a possible analyst site visit once DRC travel restrictions tied to Ebola ease. Corporate: a PEA targeted for early 2027, a financing expected during phase 2, MMG’s dilution from 21.5% toward the mid teens by year end, alignment discussions with the 2018 mining code that would take the government’s free carried stake to 10%, and shareholder ratification of the rights plan at the AGM.
Risks
He kept coming back to timing rather than geology as the main risk, and the specific pressure points are DRC logistics, cross-border sample movement to Tanzania that can add a month before assays even start, and the rainy season arriving in roughly two months, which could interrupt the Kalemie road for days at a time. Funding is the other near-term issue since the current treasury does not reach the PEA and a raise is expected mid-program, with dilution the obvious consequence. Country risk remains the pushback he hears most at conferences: M23 controls Bukavu a few hundred kilometres north, the Twangiza operation in South Kivu was seized and looted, security on site relies on the national army rather than private contractors, and Ebola-related travel restrictions are currently blocking analyst site visits.
Avanti Gold CEO Interview
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