Another junior explorer has brought in well known mining personality Klaus Eckhof to help it pick up its game.

Amani Gold (ASX:ANL) has named Mr Eckhof, a long-serving director of the company, as its new part-time director for strategy and business development.

Since mid-2016, the company has wiped off over 77 per cent of its value, slumping to 1.9c from 8.5c. Following the news of Mr Eckhof’s appointment, shares climbed 5.3 per cent.

ANL shares over the past year. Source: Investing.com
ANL shares over the past year. Source: Investing.com

Mr Eckhof is the non-executive chairman of AVZ Minerals (ASX:AVZ) and a geologist who has developed several projects globally.

In the past year, AVZ shares have rocketed over 1600 per cent to its last traded price of 22.7c, giving the company a market cap of over $400 million.

Mr Eckhof was also recently installed on the board of Argent Minerals (ASX:ARD) after disgruntled shareholders lost confidence in the previous board and voted the directors out.

The gig with Amani comes with an incentive — Mr Eckhof, along with chairman Yu Qiu-Ming and technical director Jacky Chan (no, not the famous Hong Kong martial artist) will each be entitled to a sizeable chunk of shares if Amani’s share price reaches certain targets.

Subject to shareholder approval, Amani will hand over two tranches of 45 million rights and one tranche of 30 million rights that will vest once the company’s share price reaches 4c, 6c and 8c respectively.

Mr Eckhof’s appointment is part of Amani’s change of strategy. The company is refocusing its efforts on exploration at its Giro gold project, where significant areas remain under explored.

The move comes after Luck Winner Investment canned its planned $10 million investment in Amani after it failed to secure a two-year extension to the deadline to complete a feasibility study at the project in the agreed timeframe.

Amani has since been given until December 2018 by Democratic Republic of the Congo state-owned entity Société Minière de Kilo Moto to complete the study in exchange for a US$750,000 payment.