Omineca commences drilling at Wingdam, British Columbia
Omineca Mining and Metals Ltd.’s [OMM-TSXV; OMMSF-OTCBB] 2022 lode gold drill program is under way, targeting the bedrock source of the rich placer gold found beneath the Lighting Creek valley at the 100%-owned underground Wingdam paleoplacer mining project in the Cariboo mining district of south-central British Columbia.
The drill program commenced at the Skopos target, located on the valley top, immediately to the south of the Wingdam mine portal. The program will continue at Mary Creek, located on geological trend northwest of Wingdam, which is another historic placer gold producing area with limited to no hard rock exploration. It is anticipated that the drilling programs will be completed by early November with assays to follow once received and compiled.
Skopos is a hydrothermal gold deposition target identified following a compilation and analysis of mapping and sampling data, previous drilling and new ground geophysical survey results for Induced Polarity and various magnetic signatures. The Skopos target is located approximately 900 metres south of the Wingdam mine in an area of heavy overburden cover with limited outcrop exposure. The drill program is designed to test a number of geophysical targets both within and adjacent to the Eureka thrust fault. The southwest dipping Eureka thrust fault marks the contact between the Barkerville Sub-terrane quartzites of the Ramos succession and the structurally overlying Quesnel Terrane strata consisting of less deformed, variably phyllitic, carbonaceous siltstones. The Crooked Amphibolite occurs as discontinuous, strongly deformed, metamorphosed, and altered lenses of ultramafic and mafic volcanic rocks along the Eureka Thrust.
Early observations in drilling at Skopos show visual indications of highly altered volcanic rocks with showings of finely disseminated to narrow intervals of massive sulphide mineralization. Indications of massive sulphide mineralization and variable alteration has been consistently noted in Skopos drill holes, e.g., a hole targeting an Induced Polarization Chargeability anomaly, flanking the north side of the Eureka thrust fault, contained massive sulphides intersecting altered Ramos metasediments in a section containing graphitic pelite zones. Not observed before, flanking to the north of the massive sulphides was an intensely sericitic bleached section cut by narrow quartz veins with pyrite and a trace of a silvery mineral, potentially arsenopyrite which is commonly associated with hydrothermal gold deposits. Approximately 1,400 meters of drilling in 7 drill holes has been completed at the Skopos target area. Logging and sampling are underway and will be sent for assay.
The Mary Creek targets occur in a similar geological setting as observed in the Skopos area and are located approximately 6 km northwest of the Wingdam mine. In this area, a historical sonic drilling program for placer gold intersected quartz veining with attendant pyrite and arsenopyrite mineralization in bedrock proximal to overlying overburden. Two targets will be drill tested where the mineralization was encountered in the sonic drill holes and has been correlated with recent geophysical survey results (IP and Mag), MMI soil sampling, and geological mapping conducted by the Company this season. Approximately 1,400 meters of drilling in 6 to 7 holes is planned to test the Mary Creek targets.
Omineca Mining and Metals Ltd.’s flagship Wingdam gold exploration and placer recovery project is located along the Barkerville Highway 45 km east of the City of Quesnel. The Wingdam Property includes mineral tenures totaling over 61,392 hectares (613 km2) and in excess of 15 linear km of placer claims, both encompassing the Lightning Creek valley where topographic conditions created thick layers of overburden, which preserved a large portion of a buried paleochannel containing placer gold-bearing gravels. Omineca also has an exploration and diamond drill program currently underway exploring for the potential multiple hard rock sources of the placer gold at Wingdam.