Nov 13 2014
Asanko Gold Inc. is pleased to announce it has awarded the mining contract for the fully funded and permitted Phase 1 of the Asanko Gold Mine in Ghana.
Project construction commenced in August and has been advancing rapidly with the Project on schedule and budget. Phase 1 is expected to produce 200,000 ounces of gold per annum at steady state commencing in Q2 2016, with the first gold pour planned during Q1 2016.
The main mineral resource for Phase 1 is the Nkran pit, located immediately adjacent to the new plant site currently under construction. The pit was previously mined to a depth of approximately 120 meters and requires 21.7 million tonnes of waste to be pre-stripped prior to commencing ore mining operations in Q4 2015.
The Company completed a rigorous tendering process to select the mining contractor and has awarded the contract for the Nkran pre-strip plus the first year of mining operations to PW Ghana Ltd ("PW"), a subsidiary of PW Mining International Ltd of Accra, Ghana. PW has extensive experience in West Africa and a full fleet of equipment in excellent condition that can be immediately deployed to the Project site. Pre-stripping is expected to commence in January 2015. Mobilization, clearing and grubbing will take place in November and December 2014.
The process of finding a mining contractor began in May of this year when the Company invited 19 mining contract companies to tender. From these initial submissions, it was determined that a short list of seven companies had the capability to meet the Project timelines and quantities. In July, these short listed companies were invited to provide a more detailed tender. Four of the tenders submitted were selected for detailed technical and commercial review.
An independent quantity survey company was engaged to provide the commercial adjudication and a panel of Asanko's Ghanaian mining team was formed to conduct technical adjudications. In the adjudication process the bids were evaluated based on the contractor's observed expertise and performance in safety, training, equipment availability, maintenance and operating excellence. In addition the Company gave significant weighting to local ownership of the tendering companies, in accordance with the African Union Mining Vision's mandate.
Source: http://www.asanko.com