May 12 2017
East Africa Metals Inc. is pleased to announce it has been informed the Ministry of Mines, Petroleum and Natural Gas has completed its review of the Company's Mine Permit Application and has issued a draft Model Agreement for the Company's Terakimti Oxide Gold Project located in the Tigray National Regional State of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.
The delivery of the draft Model Agreement indicates the Ministry has approved the permit application and advanced the permitting process to the next stage. The draft Model Agreement sets out the rights and obligations of both parties with respect to the development and operation of the Terakimti Oxide Gold Project and, once executed will result in the issuance of the Mining License.
"This is an important milestone for East Africa Metals and the Ethiopian resources sector," said Andrew Lee Smith, East Africa Metals CEO. "We anticipate the Terakimti Oxide Gold Project will be the first heap leach operation in the country and will be an important basis for the future development of the highly prospective copper-gold VMS systems in the Tigray region."
The Company is currently reviewing the Agreement and expects to respond to the Ministry in the coming days. In anticipation of the pending development program, the Company has engaged SENET of Johannesburg South Africa to initiate the detailed engineering for the project. East Africa Metals representatives will also be travelling to China in the coming weeks to finalize the terms for a US$10M line of credit that will secure project financing with Shandong Tyan Home Co. Ltd.
Terakimti Oxide Gold Project Profile (See news release dated August 11, 2016):
- Mineral Resource: 1,125,000 tonnes grading 3.2 grams gold and 24.0 grams silver per tonne containing 107,000 ounces of gold and 812,000 ounces of silver;
- Column leach test recoveries: 73.5 % gold and 39% silver at a crush size of minus 16 mm;
- Mining Method: Conventional open pit;
- Processing: Heap leaching to produce gold-silver dore.
Source: http://www.eastafricametals.com/