Canadian gold company Omai Gold Mines Corporation will be moving to update its mineral resource estimate for its Wenot project in Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), followed by a decision on its preliminary economic assessment, in the second half of 2023.
This announcement was made by Omai President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Elaine Cunningham, in a recent statement from the company that also announced additional drill results from Omai.
“Assays have been received for five additional holes, including four exploration holes and one hole at Wenot exploring the down dip extension of the central part of the known deposit as well as additional shallower, northern flanking gold zones. To date in 2023, eleven holes have been completed totalling 3,570 metres (“m”) and drilling continues,” the statement said.
Omai’s Region Seven holdings
According to the statement, results from one of the holes confirm that Wenot gold-bearing structures continue to at least 100 metres below the current resource model being used. According to Omai, this supports growing evidence that the gold grades at Wenot only increase with the depth.
Hole 23ODD-064 confirms the continuity of the Wenot gold-bearing structures to at least 100m below the current resource model in this central part of the deposit with an impressive intersection of 5.18 g/t Au over 20.2 m, including 12.7 g/t Au over 7.9 m. This intersection, according to Cunningham, reinforces growing evidence that the gold grades at Wenot increase with depth.
“Similar to our excellent drill results from a couple of weeks ago, these new results again confirm the significant expansion potential for the Wenot deposit, to depth as well as along the flanks. In the first half of the year, we pursued some of the nearby exploration targets and we remain confident that there are additional gold deposits on this well-endowed Omai gold property.”
Notwithstanding the positive drill results, however, Cunningham elaborated that the company will be focusing its attention and budget on a few immediate targets, leading up to its preliminary economic assessment.
“Given the large NI 43-101 Mineral Resource Estimate established late last year, we believe our drill budget is best focused on: 1) testing some of the undrilled gaps within the Wenot deposit model, 2) expanding the western “starter pit” area, and 3) providing evidence of the blue-sky potential for the Wenot deposit at depth.”
“Results to date are already expected to positively impact the resources as we move forward to an updated mineral resource estimate to be followed by a decision on a preliminary economic assessment (“PEA”) later this year,” the CEO said.
A few weeks ago, Omai had announced that for the first half of 2023, they had found extensive gold in their Wenot drill site. The announcement was made by the company in a statement, in which they revealed that a total of 3569 metres have been completed in 11 holes in 2023. In hole 23ODD-063, visible gold was seen in 37 locations along 299 metres of core.
Back in February 2022, the company announced that it would continue drilling at its Region Seven location since it believes that even more deposits of gold are available at the Wenot deposit.
Prior to that, the company had filed a technical report with SEDAR, which supports the 16.7 million tonnes of indicated gold and 19.5 million tonnes of inferred gold it had announced the Wenot deposit held back in January.
In this technical report, consultant P&E Mining explained that extending the Wenot deposit is expected to cost US$2.65 million and be completed in the next 12 months. According to the report, it was explained that exploring these targets could provide opportunities for open-pit mining.
In January 2022, Omai Gold Mines had announced the discovery of significant gold values during initial trenching and drilling on the Broccoli Hill target at its Region Seven holdings. The company had disclosed that trenching exposed a quartz-rich shear zone with samples assaying 29.3 g/t Au, 7.8 g/t Au, 5.0 g/t Au and 2.2 g/t Au along a 40-metre strike.
Additionally, the first round of drilling on Broccoli Hill, totalling 690 metres, intersected gold mineralisation with four of the six holes returning assays greater than 1 g/t Au and as high as 4.04 g/t Au over 0.9 m and 0.91 g/t over 6.8 m.
Omai Gold Mines, which returned to the Wenot and Fennell pits in 2020 after leaving Guyana in 2015, had announced in December 2020 that it would be pressing forward with a 5000-metre drilling programme. (G3)
