Cardinal Resources chief executive and managing director Archie Koimtsidis has for the past 20 years been involved in all facets of gold exploration, discovery, production, and refining in West Africa and South America.

Archie's most recent appointment prior to joining Cardinal was as deputy country manager of Ghana for PMI Gold, a dual-listed TSXV and ASX company. During this time, he was responsible for all field operational matters including coordination of exploration, drilling programmes, and human resource management relating to that company's projects in Ghana.

Archie has been instrumental in acquiring the Ghanaian projects on behalf of Cardinal and has a unique knowledge and understanding of geopolitical and operational matters relating to resource projects in West Africa.

Ghana rates as one of the shining lights in Africa and holds few fears for Cardinal Resources as it moves forward its Namdini gold project, according to Cardinal chief executive and managing director Archie Koimtsidis.

The ASX-listed development group has submitted its Environmental Impact Statement and already has its mining licence, well ahead of where it needs to be if permits are to keep pace with a project that is yet to deliver full feasibility results.

Cardinal released a prefeasibility study for Namdini last year, which outlined a 294,000 ounce per annum operation with operating costs of US$769/oz for an NPV of $586 million (post tax, 5% discount) after an initial spend of $414 million. The IRR was 38%.

"As far as the mining pedigree is concerned, it's not a problem - Ghana is a flagship in West Africa," he said.

Koimtsidis said Ghana had lost exploration investment to surrounding jurisdictions in recent years but the government had acknowledged there was work to do to win those dollars back and had made the requisite changes.

"I give full credit to previous and current government for two reasons. One, they acknowledge exploration money was being spent in neighbouring countries because of an administrative and regulatory framework that had become cumbersome over the years so they've lightened up there, cutting the red tape," he said.

"More importantly in our specific case, they've been right behind us because there isn't a commercial mine in this part of Ghana at this level. This will be the first mine and biggest throughput in Ghana - who wouldn't want that to happen on their watch?"

Relevant infrastructure and skills extends to the north of the country and many Ghanaians are working over the border at mines in Burkina Faso.

Ghana is a B-rated jurisdiction in the Investment Risk Index, part of Mining Journal's World Risk Report (feat. MineHutte ratings).