Omai tables new gold estimate at former Guyana mine project
Omai Gold Mines Corp. [OMG-TSXV, OMGGF-OTCQB] has reported an updated mineral resource estimate for its 100%-owned Omai Gold property in Guyana.
The company said the updated estimate will form the basis of a preliminary economic assessment which is currently underway and is expected to be announced in the first quarter of 2024.
The Omai property hosts two gold deposits: the shear-hosted Wenot Deposit and the adjacent intrusive-hosted Gilt Creek Deposit. They are estimated to contain an indicated resource of 1.98 million ounces of gold and an inferred resource of 2.28 million ounces. That mark increases of 4.0% and 28% respectively from earlier estimates.
The news estimate includes 834,000 ounces of indicated material and 1.61 million ounces of inferred in the Wenot Deposit, and 1.15 million ounces of indicated and 665,000 ounces of inferred material in the Gilt Creek deposit.
The company estimates that 87% of the estimated resource in the Wenot Deposit is located within 350 metres of surface. Excellent exploration potential is evident along a 2.5-kilometre length of the host Wenot shear corridor, with potential to expand within, adjacent to, below and along strike, the company said.
Omai shares were unchanged at $0.07 and trade in a 52-week range of $0.08 and $0.035.
Guyana, a South American country that has attracted the attention of major players in the precious metals sector.
They include Barrick Gold Corp.’s [ABX-TSX, GOLD-NYSE], the world’s second largest gold miner, and China’s Zijin Mining Group Ltd., companies that have been drawn to Guyana because it contains the world’s most prospective, but under-explored region, known as the Guiana Shield.
The Guiana Shield stretches for over 900,000 square kilometres across northeastern South America and is known to host multiple greenstone belt assemblages with the potential to host large, multi-million-ounce gold deposits.
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 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.
“This this expansion, the contained ounces in our mineral resource estimate exceeds the total gold produced from the former mine, and at similar grades,’’ said Omai President and CEO Elaine Ellingham. “We believe that with the current mineral resource estimate combined with the many benefits of the brownfields project, that Omai is proving the potential to rival its historical status.’’