Aim-listed Hamak Strategy has selected Snowden Optiro as independent consultant to undertake the preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for the Akoko oxide gold project, in southwest Ghana.

In a statement to shareholders, Hamak notes that Snowden brings 35 years of extensive gold and base metals experience, having completed over 14 000 technical assignments in its 35-year history.

The company explains that the PEA will be National Instrument- (NI-) 43-101-compliant and focus on an openpit heap-leach mining operation of the upper oxides gold mineralisation zones.

The oxide mineralisation hosts over 120 000 oz of gold within 50 m 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.

Hamak CEO and executive director Karl Smithson says the company has 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 its 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 mineralisation 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,” says Smithson.

Hamak explains that Snowden Optiro consultants have successfully delivered assignments similar that envisaged for the proposed Akoko PEA, including scoping studies, prefeasibility 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 company says Snowden Optiro has assembled a multidisciplinary team with experience across mineral resources, openpit 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 study will focus on analysing the economic potential of an openpit gold mining operation with gold recovery through heap leach methods.

Hamak says the capital and operating costs, as well as potential future cash flows and margins, will 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 openpit development strategy for the oxide and transitional material; define a preliminary crushing, agglomeration and heap-leach processing concept; and develop appropriate infrastructure, water management, environmental and mine closure concepts.

The PEA is also required to prepare capital and operating cost estimates using available project information and appropriate benchmark data; integrate the technical assumptions into a financial model; and 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.