Omai Gold discovery extends depth of Guyana deposit

Omai Gold Mines (TSXV: OMG; US-OTC: OMGGF) said new drilling at its namesake project in Guyana has extended the past-producing site’s Wenot deposit to new depths, opening the door to a resource increase.

Hole 25ODD-122W cut 7.9 metres grading 2.19 grams gold per tonne from 2,002 metres downhole, Omai Gold said Wednesday in a statement. The hole intersected multiple gold zones about 700 metres below the known Wenot deposit, which has a strike length of about 2.5 km, the company said. Mineralization remains open at depth.

“This result suggests a doubling of the size potential of Wenot, proving to investors, and potential acquirers, that the Omai system can support a very long mine life at a high throughput,” Ben Pirie, a mining analyst at Atrium Research in Toronto, said in a note to clients.

News of the discovery comes as Omai Gold works to complete about 30,000 metres of drilling at Wenot, double the initial 2025 target. An updated preliminary economic assessment, originally scheduled for early in 2026, will now be published sometime in the first half, the company said. It will include the expanded Wenot open-pit deposit and the adjacent Gilt Creek underground deposit.

Second-largest

Omai ranks as Guyana’s second-largest undeveloped gold project by contained ounces.

Shares of Omai Gold rose 4% to C$1.29 late Thursday morning in Toronto, following an 8.8% gain Wednesday. That boosted the company’s market value to about C$820 million ($586 million).

Omai Gold’s exploration success is “a massive win for the company,” Pirie added. “Potential acquirers of the project will want to see resource growth potential and there is no greater indication of this than today’s result.”

Implications of the drill results “are very significant,” added Haywood Securities mining analyst Jamie Spratt. “Clearly a lot of drilling is required to establish the continuity and mineability of this deeper mineralization, but we believe that this begins to point to a much larger mining scenario at Wenot and two possible underground deposits that could leverage shared underground infrastructure.”

Multiple zones

Multiple gold zones were intersected across at least 220 metres north to south — and these could also have “significant” strike length, Omai Gold said.

Hole 122 was collared in the volcanics north of Gilt Creek, the company said. After intersecting the known diabase dike from about 300 metres downhole, it drilled through a hornblende porphyry followed by a 699-metre interval of Omai quartz-diorite intrusive stock that hosts most of the Gilt Creek gold mineralization.

The project sits on the site of the former Omai gold mine, which produced more than 3.7 million oz. of gold from 1993 to 2005 and stopped operations when the yellow metal traded below $400 an ounce. Omai benefits from existing infrastructure and is connected to the two country’s two largest cities, Georgetown and Linden.

Contained gold in the indicated category for Omai stands at 2.12 million oz. grading 2.07 grams gold per tonne in 31.9 million tonnes, the company said Aug. 26. Contained gold in the inferred category almost doubled from the previous resource to 4.38 million oz. at 1.95 grams gold inside 69.6 million tonnes.