Omai Gold expands drilling in wide gold zones at Wenot mine

– records positive results

The Canada-based Omai Gold Mines Corp is continuing to see positive results from the ongoing drilling activities at the Wenot deposit in Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni).
In a statement on Wednesday, the mining company said it was focused on expanding the Wenot deposit at the Omai Gold Project here. “Very wide zones of up to 68.7m with robust gold grades were drilled within the “Dike Corridor”, one of the five main subparallel gold zones that comprise the Wenot deposit,” it stated.
According to Omai, assays are reported for three additional drill holes and results are pending for an additional seven holes.
The findings at Hole 24ODD-085: 3.16 g/t Au over 68.7m including 6.65 g/t Au over 29.9m; 2.64 g/t Au over 6.5m, and 1.87 g/t Au over 7.5m. At Hole 24ODD-087: 4.57 g/t Au over 45.5m, including 2.40 g/t Au over 38.0m and 77.71 g/t Au over 1.5m; 19.36 g/t Au over 2.5m, and 2.07 g/t Au over 8.5m.

Omai President & Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Elaine Ellingham commented, “We are very excited by the very wide gold zones intersected in these recent holes at Omai. The very significant widths and robust gold grades further demonstrate that the gold zones at Wenot increase in width and grade with depth.
“Drilling is expected to continue well into Q1 2025 and we remain on track for an updated Mineral Resource Estimate in Q1 2025, and an updated economic study is planned for Q2 2025. This is expected to include both an expanded Wenot deposit and the Gilt Creek deposit, which was not included in the 2024 Preliminary Economic Assessment 1.”
The mining company said the most significant of these current drilling results at the two holes is that both intersected very wide gold zones and at greater depths than previously known within one of the most prolific zones within the Wenot deposit known as the “Dike Corridor”.
The Dike Corridor is one of five main subparallel, near-vertical gold zones that comprise the large 2.5-kilometre long Wenot deposit. Lying within the broader Wenot Shear, the “Dike Corridor “ is a 100 to 200m wide zone within the volcanic sequence, typically 25 to 100m north of the central sediment-volcanic contact. This zone was selectively mined from 1995-2002 when the gold price fell well below US$400/oz, suggesting it was deemed the most economic.
The “Dike Corridor “ comprises a series of felsic and diorite dikes intruded into the volcanic sequence with variable shearing, alteration and stockworks of quartz veining within the felsic dikes, and hosting significant gold mineralisation.
These high-grade drill results at the Wenot pit come on the heels of calls by the Guyana Government for Omai, which has been in the developmental stage for an extended period, to move on to production.
“Omai Gold Mines has been in the development stage for a very, very long time, and we would like to see people moving from proving reserves to actually producing gold,” Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo said during a press conference in July.
While he noted that there was no timeframe set out for the Canada-based company to start production, Jagdeo explained that only after a company began production, do the Government begin collecting royalties and taxes.
“Some people actually sit on companies forever, and they raise funds to prove reserves and they keep announcing how many ounces of gold are in reserve there without getting into the real production, and it is only in the production stage that the Government gets its share of royalty and taxes, because the large-scale mines got to pay both the royalty and taxes,” the VP had noted.
Omai is a past-producing gold mine that was opened in 1992, and produced approximately 3.7 million ounces of gold, making it the largest gold mine in South America at the time. The project closed in 2006 due to financial constraints and low gold prices. The operator then returned in 2020 when the gold price was over US$1,900 per ounce, and in April 2024, the company announced the completion of a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA).
The PEA supports an initial open-pit mining scenario for production of 1.84 million ounces, averaging 142,000 ounces of gold per year over a 13-year mine life, with peak year production of 184,000 ounces.
In February 2024, the company announced an updated Mineral Resource Estimate of 2 million ounces of gold.
For 2024, the Omai team said it is prioritising drilling to demonstrate the further expansion potential of the new Wenot deposit, drilling on key near-surface high-grade exploration targets, and continuing baseline and engineering studies to determine a path forward towards a development plan for the project.