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13 October 2022

Hamak Gold Limited

("Hamak Gold" or the "Company")

Drilling Contract Signed

Issuance of Vesting and Fee Shares

Hamak Gold Limited (LSE: HAMA) is pleased to announce that it has signed a drilling contract with Cestos Drilling Liberia ("Cestos"). The agreement is for an initial drilling programme to identify the depth and width extensions of significant gold mineralization recently identified from channel sampling of the Ziatoyah bedrock outcrop exposure in an area of artisanal workings on our Nimba Licence in northern Liberia.

Highlights

·    Up to 450m of drilling planned from three drill holes as an initial test of the depth and width extensions of positive channel sampling results. These returned 55 metres ("m") at 0.63 g/t Au, including 14m at 1.98 g/t Au and 11m at 0.99 g/t Au including 3m at 3.14 g/t Au

·    The value of the drilling contract will be settled by a mix of cash and Hamak Gold shares, made up of a cash payment of $20,000 and up to 781,250 ordinary shares in Hamak Gold at an issue price of 10 pence per share, dependent on satisfactory completion of the drilling programme

·    Subject to positive drilling results, a more extensive drilling programme will be designed to test the extensive 3km x 1km gold in soil anomalous zone that includes the Ziatoyah outcrop

·    Trenching and channel sampling results to the north and west of Ziatoyah located over identified strong gold in soil anomalies have returned positive results with trench extensions and additional trenches planned to fully define the anomalies prior to drilling

Karl Smithson, Executive Director of Hamak Gold commented:

We will shortly commence a drilling programme to test the width and depth extensions of the significant gold mineralization identified by soil and channel sampling over the Ziatoyah outcrop in our Nimba licence.  We are pleased to be working with Cestos who have agreed to accept equity for the majority of their drilling services, showing their confidence in our programme and helping to conserve cash for the Company in these challenging equity markets.  We look forward to providing further updates as the programme progresses."

Planned Drilling Programme and Contract

The programme of up to 450m of diamond core drilling will commence in late October. 

Initially, two angled HQ/NQ core holes, attaining vertical depths of 128m and 85m respectively, are scheduled to be drilled under the previously reported gold mineralization associated with a metadolerite outcrop at the Ziatoyah location. Notable results so far obtained include rock chip samples grading at 46g/t Au and 37g/t Au and channel sampling that returned 55.0m at 0.63 g/t Au and 11.0m at 0.99 g/t Au, which include better intervals of 14m at 1.98g/t Au and 3m at 3.14g/t Au respectively. Within these zones are individual samples returning up to 5.2g/t Au and 8.56g/t Au over 2m splits (Figure 1). The channel sampling results show that the mineralization is open ended at surface, so the drilling will be orientated to test the width extent of the gold mineralization at depth.

The drill core will be split, logged and photographed with half of the core being consigned to the ALS laboratory in Ghana for gold fire assay. A third drill hole may be drilled at the Ziatoyah location, or further to the northeast to test positive channel sample results in trenches excavated across gold in soil anomalies.

If positive results are returned from the assays, then a more extensive drilling programme will incorporate the wider soil sampling and channel sampling results within the block (Figure 2)

Figure 1: Planned Drilling Across Ziatoyah Gold Mineralization 

The Company has agreed to pay for the drill programme through the issuance of 781,250 ordinary shares in Hamak Gold Ltd. and a cash payment of U$20,000 to Cestos Drilling.  The shares are being priced at 10 pence per share and will be issued on the satisfactory completion of the drill programme. The exact number of shares issued will depend on the final drill meterage. Shares issued to Cestos will be subject to a six-month lock-in period.

Soil and Channel Sampling Results

A total of 1,733 soil samples have been collected and assayed from Nimba Block-1. A strong gold anomaly extends over a length of 3km and width of 1km and includes peak values of over 1.5ppm (g/t Au). The anomaly trends in an approximate northeast orientation which is consistent with the trend of the gold mineralized metadolerite outcrop observed at Ziatoyah (Figure 2).

Figure 2:  Nimba Block-1 Soil Sampling Results

Two trenches, totalling 554m in length, have been dug across two key gold in soil anomalies.

Trench-1 was excavated over a distance of 274m and to a depth of 3m. A total of 303 samples were collected and assayed. 

Trench-2 was excavated over a distance of 280m and to a depth of 3m. A total of 310 samples were collected and assayed.

In both cases bedrock was not reached with the over burden being thicker than expected. However, both trenches show encouraging broad gold anomalism across the channel samples with increasing values at the southeast end of each trench (272ppb in Trench-1 and 310ppb in Trench-2) and therefore the trenches will be extended to the southeast. Furthermore, to better define these strong soil anomalies, additional trenches are also required to be dug and channel sampled prior to subsequent drilling.

Issue of Vesting and Fee Shares

As reported in the recent Interim Results announcement (28 September 2022), the three milestones required to be completed for the issuance of Vesting Shares (i.e. deferred shares from the IPO on 1 March 2022) to founding directors Amara Kamara and Karl Smithson have been met. The achievement of these milestones has been independently reviewed and confirmed by the Remuneration Committee of the Company. The total number of vesting shares to be issued is 16,350,000 ordinary shares to Amara Kamara and 1,590,000 ordinary shares to Karl Smithson. 

Furthermore, as outlined in the Company's Admission document, to conserve funds, the Directors of the Company agreed to accept shares in lieu of fees for a period of 18 months following the date of Admission to the LSE, to be received quarterly in arrears ("Fee Shares").  For the period of 1 June to 31 August 2022, a total of 465,472 Fee Shares will be issued to the Directors of the Company. 

Application will be made for the approval of the LSE to issue the Vesting and Fee Shares.  After issuance of the Vesting Shares and Fee Shares the issued share capital of the Company will be 39,703,944 ordinary shares.  The figure of 39,703,944 ordinary shares may be used by shareholders in the Company as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the share capital of the Company under the Financial Conduct Authority's Disclosure and Transparency Rules.

Following issuance of the Vesting and Fee Shares, the Directors' share interests will be as follows:

For further information you are invited to view the company's website at www.hamakgold.com or please contact:

About Hamak Gold Limited

Hamak Gold Limited (LSE: HAMA) is a UK listed company focussed on gold exploration of a portfolio of licences in highly prospective areas of Liberia and having a growth strategy that considers other exploration and development opportunities in the wider West Africa region.

QA/QC

Channel sampling was undertaken by Hamak Gold's Liberian field crew, supervised by senior staff members of the Company.  All rock samples met the standards for adequate chain of custody without opportunity for third party access from the field to the preparation laboratory in Monrovia, Liberia, and then onward to the ALS Global analytical laboratory in Ghana.

Sample Preparation

Sample preparation was performed by Liberia Geochemical Services Inc. in Monrovia. The entire rock sample was dried and then crushed to 70% passing -2 millimetres and a representative split was taken by riffle splitting. The 500 grammes ["g") split was then pulverized up to 85% passing -75 micron and the required pulp mass of ~ 250g was bagged and labelled for analysis; with the remainder being stored. 

Analysis

Analysis was performed by ALS Global at their laboratory in Ghana by fire assay with atomic absorption finish, specifically for gold content, using method Au-AA24 with a 50g charge.   During the analysis, the two samples, referred to above, exceeded the detection limits (of 10 ppm Au or 10g/t Au) whereby the over limit samples underwent fire assay with a gravimetric finish using method Au-GRA22 with a 50g charge. 

QC was performed by the analysis of four different certified lab standards with gold values similar to that expected from the rock samples. These standards were inserted within each sample batch and returned appropriate levels of gold within the range of each standard.

Qualified Person

The technical information in this announcement that relates to exploration results is based on information reviewed by Hamak Gold's retained consultant Dr Colin Andrew, who is an independent Consulting Economic Geologist, and graduate of Imperial College London and the Royal School of Mines and is a Member of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, a Fellow of the Geological Society of London, a Member of the Society of Economic Geologists, and a registered Chartered Engineer with the Engineering Council.

Colin Andrew has over forty years of diverse mining industry experience, relevant to the nature of exploration, the style of mineralization and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity that he is reviewing, to qualify as a "an "Independent Qualified Person" as such term is defined in NI 43-101.