Omai Gold closes $25.3 million bought deal offering
Omai Gold Mines Corp. [OMG-TSXV, OMGGF-OTCQB] has raised $25.3 million from a bought deal offering with proceeds earmarked for exploration and development and general working capital purposes.
Omai Gold holds a 100% interest in the Omai prospecting license, which includes the past-producing Omai gold mine in Guyana, and a 100% interest in the adjoining Eastern Flats mining permits.
The bought deal private placement offering consisted of 84.3 million common shares, which included the exercise of the overallotment option in full, at a price of 30 cents per share.
On Friday, Omai shares eased 1.25% or $0.005 to 39.5 cents. The shares trade in a 52-week range of 47 cents and $0.06.
Omai Gold was in the news recently when it appointed Elaine Ellingham as executive chairman and Derek Macpherson as lead director.
Ellingham continues in the role of president and CEO of Omai Gold, a position she has held since 2021. She has been instrumental in building and leading a team that has discovered significant gold resources at the company’s gold project in Guyana.
Completion of a positive preliminary economic assessment has been described as a solid advancement for the project and a tangible milestone for the company.
An updated NI 43-101 mineral resource estimate announced in February 2024, includes 2.0 million ounces of gold in the indicated category and 2.3 million ounces of inferred material.
The preliminary economic assessment (PEA) on the Wenot deposit envisages an open pit operation capable of producing 1.84 million ounces of gold over 13 years with a net present value at 5.0% of US$556 million at a gold price of US$1,950 per ounce. This baseline PEA incorporates only 45% of the property’s mineral resource estimate, and management believes that with additional work, the mine plan can be significantly expanded, the economics enhanced, and the open pit resources further increased
When it was developed as a large scale mine in 1992 by Canadian company Cambior, Omai ranked as the largest gold mine in the Guiana Shield. From 1992 to 2005, it produced 3.7 million ounces of gold at an average grade of 1.5 g/t gold from two open pits. The mine was producing an average of 300,000 ounces of gold annually.
Mining ceased at a time when the average gold price was less than US$400 an ounce. As a brownfields project, the company has said Omai benefits from good road access and a wealth of historical data that provides knowledge of the geology of gold mineralization on the property, as well as metallurgy, historical recoveries and many other relevant mining parameters.