President and CEO Vince Sorace said the miner has been working closely with Ausenco as the field season approaches to bring together a team to support the work, including geotechnical, environmental, metallurgical, resource, mining and hydrology/hydrogeological consultants. He also pointed out that the firm recently wrapped up construction of Atlantic Gold's Moose River on time and budget.

Ausenco, which will be engineering lead, will be flanked by Sim Geological for resource modelling, Holland & Holland for metallurgical engineering and process design, Terrane Geoscience for geotechnical engineering, SRK Consulting for open-pit and underground mine design, ERM Consultants Canada/Rescan Tahltan Environmental Consultants for environmental baseline studies and permitting, Lorax Environmental for hydrology and hydrogeological modelling, and OnSite Engineering for road design and engineering.

Ausenco Americas president Simon Cmrlec said it is aiming to optimise the value of the project and deliver a feasibility study on time and on budget by the summer of 2019.

The Kutcho property is located east of Dease Lake in the Liard mining division; at 17,060 hectares, it consists of one mining lease and 46 mineral exploration claims. The site is currently accessible via airstrip and a seasonal road.

Kutcho's mine life has been estimated at 12 years with a production rate of 2,500t per day.