– more drilling planned for current, higher-grade zones
Canadian company Omai Goldmines, which is currently doing gold exploration in its Wenot pit in Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), has reported that for the first half of 2023, they’ve found extensive gold in their Wenot drill site.
The announcement was made by the company in a recent 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.
In fact, it was explained that this particular hole contained multiple gold zones within the Wenot shear corridor, with gold mineralisation extending to the surface. Importantly, no previous mining was done in this area below the surficial saprolite. The company’s President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Elaine Ellingham, described the results as impressive.
“These impressive new drill results continue to confirm the magnitude of the Wenot deposit, by demonstrating strike and depth continuity of significant gold mineralisation. We have not seen any limitations to the Wenot deposit, and as such are confident that additional drilling can further expand the gold resources.”
“At Wenot, 88 per cent of the NI 43-101 mineral resource estimate lies above a 300m depth and the few holes that tested below confirm continuity and suggest that grades may increase with depth, particularly at the west end of the deposit,” Ellingham said.
It was further explained that due to the potential for a future mine plan in the location, an additional two to three drill holes are planned to pursue these and other higher-grade zones within the west Wenot area. Additionally, the results for other drill sites in the programme are expected soon.
Last year, Omai announced that it was accelerating its drilling campaign with the addition of a second drill. In a statement, Ellingham had explained that the second drill was intended to supplement the work being done by the first one on nearby targets.
“Our focus continues to be on advancing exploration at our 100%-owned Omai Project in Guyana, to create tangible value and real growth for our shareholders. We have added a second drill at the Omai Gold Project in Guyana.”
“This will allow us to accelerate our work to expand the Wenot resource, while the first drill can continue to explore the additional nearby targets identified by our exploration team,” Ellingham had said.
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.
