Snowden Optiro Selected for Akoko PEA
Hamak Strategy Limited (LSE: HAMA / OTCQB: HASTF), a Company combining advanced gold exploration in West Africa with a Digital Asset Treasury Management strategy, is pleased to announce that it has selected Snowden Optiro (“Snowden”) as its chosen independent consultants to undertake the Preliminary Economic Assessment (“PEA”) for the Akoko oxide gold project in southwest Ghana.
Highlights
· Snowden brings 35 years of extensive gold and base metals experience having completed over 14,000 technical assignments in its 35-year history
· The PEA will be NI 43-101 compliant and focus on an open-pit heap-leach mining operation of the upper oxides gold mineralization zones
· The oxide mineralization hosts over 120,000oz Au within 50m from surface, mostly within the measured and indicated resource category
· The PEA will primarily cover mining, processing, infrastructure, capital and operating estimates and financial return estimates
CEO and Executive Director Karl Smithson commented:
“We have conducted a rigorous selection process having received and reviewed several proposals from independent technical engineering groups and are delighted to have entered a partnership with Snowden Optiro as our chosen consultants for the Akoko PEA. Snowden brings a wealth of experience to assess and report a conceptual open pit mining and heap-leach processing operation of the near-surface gold oxide mineralization at Akoko.
“This marks the next step in the project development stage for Akoko and we expect the PEA findings to determine the pathway to project financing and ultimate development of the asset.”
About Snowden Optiro
Snowden Optiro, and its consultants, have successfully delivered assignments similar that envisaged for the proposed Akoko PEA, including Scoping Studies, PFS and Feasibility Studies, NI 43-101 technical reporting, Competent Person Reports, technical due diligence, mine optimisation, Mineral Resource and Ore Reserve estimation, financial evaluation and project development support.
The Snowden Optiro brand brings with it:
· Extensive experience delivering integrated Scoping Studies, PEAs, Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) and Feasibility Studies across a wide range of commodities and jurisdictions.
· A multidisciplinary team of recognised specialists in geology, mining engineering, geotechnical engineering, Mineral Resource estimation, project optimisation and technical due diligence.
· The trust of mining companies, investors, financiers, governments and regulators through the delivery of technically robust and independent advice.
Snowden Optiro has assembled a multidisciplinary team with experience across Mineral Resources, open-pit mine planning, heap-leach processing, infrastructure, environmental and social review, financial modelling, NI 43-101 reporting and senior peer review.
The findings of the Akoko PEA are expected to be delivered within three months of the project start up.
The Akoko PEA
The Akoko PEA study will focus on analysing the economic potential of an open pit gold mining operation with gold recovery via heap leach methods. The capital and operating costs as well as potential future cash flows and margins will all be evaluated and presented in a financial model.
The PEA is required to:
· Provide a limited independent review of the existing Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE)
· Establish a PEA-level open-pit development strategy for the oxide and transitional material
· Define a preliminary crushing, agglomeration and heap-leach processing concept
· Develop appropriate infrastructure, water-management, environmental and mine closure concepts
· Prepare capital and operating cost estimates using available project information and appropriate benchmark data
· Integrate the technical assumptions into a financial model
· Identify the principal technical risks, information gaps and work required to advance the Akoko Project
The estimated time frame for delivery of the PEA is three months which will include a site visit to the Akoko project area by Snowden technical consultants in early September.
For the purposes of UK MAR, the person responsible for arranging release of this announcement on behalf of Hamak is Karl Smithson, CEO and Executive Director.