Strengths:
(i) The main strength for GFA Limited is that all its directors are proficient in the exploitation field. Among, they have two famous mining tycoons: Luca Pacioli FAICD being the chair and John Mellis, the CPA and company secretary.

(ii) They also have the skilled geologist, Simone Stevin and Mamadou Soumaré who is the director. Furthermore, the second strength is that GFA is affluent, having approximately $ 4m (AUD) in bank. Therefore, they can invest a lot in equipment and technology improving the company further.

Weaknesses:
(i) The weaknesses present are that the early amateur explorers are left without guidance. They would not know where and how to start their work and thus we can analyse that no actual work has started on prospects. GFA has slow decision making process.
(ii) The other weakness is to finance the director with maximum usage of $ 4m (AUD). This may lead to inaccurate accounts and budgets being prepared. Finally incorrect decisions can be taken which can be fatal for the company.

Opportunities:
With the gold exploration, leases situated in Mauritiana and Senegal, these can be taken as an effective opportunity. This location can be explored for gold and other metals since there is a lack of uranium in the Kintyre area of West Australia. Moreover, these regions still have their originality- not being scrutinised by modern methods yet.

Threats:
In the 1950s, French explorers investigated this area lastly. Thus, these French explorers are considered as potential competitors to GFA. They can exploit this region and finally invest in it.

Strategies:

1. Invest in Human Resource: (i) Miners (ii) Experienced accountant.

(i) GFA should think about investing in recruiting more miners. The task will be done more quickly with excellence. It is always a benefit to have many workers on a mining location.
This not only helps the company but also create employment for a larger proportion of people who are in great need of jobs to survive.

(ii) The role of a skilled accountant is important because accountants are supposed to keep records of the money in a company. Its duty is to make sure that the company has adequate amount of working capital for the smooth running of the enterprise. Finally, an inexperienced accountant can weaken the company. Therefore, it is a subjective measure to invest in proficient accountants.

2. Capitalise on mining.

Capitalising on mining can be an excellent strategy on the part of GFA. For 19 years, investing in mining in Africa has proved to be very prosperous. Billions of dollars of foreign investment have been directed into the mining industry (Mining Indaba LLC, 2012). Taylor (2012) reported that West Africa has the ability of becoming among the top five gold-manufacturing regions worldwide, according to Jonathan Leng, the mining industry analyst of Wood Mackenzie. Over the last two years, Africa has experienced a major growth of 6-7 million ounces in gold production. Perpetual development of about 11 million ounces is expected by 2015.

3. Finance in machinery for mining.

Channelling money in machinery for mining can be very effective in the sense that the finished products will be of good quality and thus demand will increase. For example, the features of a three Ultra-fine Mill are high capacity, pollution-free, safe and reliable with its progressive cavity design, operation and effective fineness of end-products (Shanghai Shunky Machinery Co., Ltd, 2012).

4. Spend on research and development.

Since the gold and platinum mines are unique in Africa, more research should be encouraged. These are mined to profundity and not seen everywhere on earth (CSIR, 2007). Therefore, more research should be undertaken for the prosperity of the company.

The mining sector is regarded as a vital contributor to economic growth in many developed and developing countries, including Australia. It helps to minimize poverty and rise human development through the upsurge of government and community incomes. Australia’s focus is on addressing the policy challenges by the state. The way the government tackle these trials determines the degree a country exploits its mining industry. One of the Australian government’s 10 development aims is to ‘enhance salaries, employment and company opportunity in both areas (rural and urban), including the development of sustainable mining infrastructure to boost overall economic expansion (AusAID, 2011)

Objectives: 1. Explore gold leases in Africa.
One of the greatest objectives is to discover gold leases in Africa. If there is greater opportunity, the future will be brighter for GFA.

2. Tests should be done to check the presence of Uranium.
Further experiments should be performed by experts in West Africa to ensure that Uranium is present because due to past exploration by Simone Stevin, there is only 10% probability of economic uranium ore. This unearthing is worth $ 30m to GFA which is a considerable amount.

Referencing:
AusAID. 2012 http://www.ausaid.gov.au/aidissues/mining/Pages/home.aspx CSIR. 2007 http://www.csir.co.za/mineral_resources/ Joanne, Taylor. 2012. ‘West Africa has potential for top-five gold spot.’ Creamer’s Media Weekly.com http://www.miningweekly.com/article/west-africa-has-potential-for-top-five-gold- spot-2012-02-24

Mining Indaba LLC. 2012 www.miningindaba.com Shanghai Shunky Machinery Co., Ltd. 2012
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