As gold prices poke the US$3000/oz mark on safe haven demand it’s tempting to seek safety with your investments in other ways, focusing on jurisdictions that don’t present much risk.

That’s one reason West Australian gold producers trade at multiples well beyond those pulled in elsewhere, with West African stocks typically lumbered with the ‘African discount’, even if they are money-spinners like West African Resources (ASX:WAF) and Perseus Mining (ASX:PRU).

West Africa is not a monolithic block, and while coups in countries like Mali and Burkina Faso have made them extraordinarily difficult to operate in, even for the world’s largest gold miners, others are becoming fertile breeding grounds for investment in junior exploration stories.

Key among those is Cote d’Ivoire, which has become the go-to jurisdiction for gold explorers on the African continent in recent years, ironic given it was a mining pariah state as recently as its 2011 civil war.

That was placed in the spotlight yesterday, when Many Peaks Minerals (ASX:MPK) shares shot up over 13% after a drill hit at the Ferké gold project collected an intercept from just 104m deep of 45m at 8.58g/t gold in a previously undetected high-grade shoot in its initial diamond drilling campaign at the formerly Predictive Discovery (ASX:PDI) owned project.

Thick, shallow intercepts were also reported previously at the Ouarigue prospect, including 47m at 3.72g/t from surface and 54.17m at 1.88/g/t from 59.58m in separate holes.

Source: Stockhead