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From The Australian yesterday.....

Chesser Resources (CHZ)

TALKING about resource estimates, it is worth noting that a modest delay by Chesser Resources in releasing a maiden resource estimate for its Kestanelik gold project in northwest Turkey has resulted in the stock being punished something shocking in recent weeks.

Expected by the market before the end of the March quarter, the absence of the first resource estimate has driven Chesser shares down from 62.5c on March 30 to the 49.5c a share on offer yesterday.

The funny thing is that there is nothing sinister in the delay. When the independent expert signs off on the maiden estimate, it will be released to the market.

Something approaching 500,000 ounces of gold would not surprise, remembering that it will be a maiden estimate based on seven high-grade epithermal quartz veins and their surrounding halo of lower grade gold mineralisation.

A multitude of other targets on the property will be drilled and brought into the resources category over time, with the expectation being that Chesser is well on its way to the 1.5 million ounces of gold that would support a 10- year-plus operation producing upwards of 100,000 ounces of gold annually.

Assuming that the maiden resource does not disappoint on that score, Chesser could well be looking at a share price bounce.

What is known for sure is that local investors are more in tune with a place like Turkey than they were before a whole bunch of nasty surprises popped up in West Africa, where you can find as many as 150 ASX-listed companies chasing gold-producer status.

Turkey is Europe's biggest gold producer and has set a fiscal regime to encourage production of more of the yellow stuff.

It's what you might expect from a country that is also a big gold consumer, let alone remembering that gold as a store of value has come in to its own as Europe's banking crisis rages.