Omineca restarts output at Canada’s only underground placer mine with 10-oz haul

Omineca Mining and Metals (TSXV: OMM; US-OTC: OMMSF) says it’s begun processing gold-bearing gravel again at its Wingdam paleoplacer project in British Columbia. 

The company recovered 10.25 oz. of coarse, nuggety gold with 90.9% purity at the site in B.C.’s Cariboo mining district, the company said on Thursday. The project enjoys the distinction of being Canada’s only placer deposit to be mined underground. The site was producing gold in 2022, but now Omineca has a new partner, D&L Mining.

Shares in Omineca Mining and Metals closed nearly a third higher at 12¢ apiece in Toronto on Thursday, valuing the company at $21.1 million. They’re traded in a 52-week range of 4.5¢ to 14¢. 

“Although the project has experienced substantial delays, the price of gold is now significantly higher than when activities at Wingdam were reinitiated,” the company said in a release. “Omineca also has an exploration and diamond drill program currently underway exploring for the potential multiple hard rock sources of the placer gold at Wingdam.” 

Lightning Creek

The property, accessed by the Barkerville Highway 45 km east of Quesnel, covers 613 sq. km with more than 15 km of placer claims in the Lightning Creek valley. Omineca is extracting alluvial gold trapped under part of the creek. Thick layers of overburden preserved a buried paleochannel containing placer gold-bearing gravels.

The company recovered the gold from about 2.5 metres of advance at the bedrock contact of the paleochannel in crosscut three, it said. The gravel exposed in the face overlying bedrock was about 0.5 to 1 metre thick which is expected to increase as the bedrock rim dips toward the channel floor’s centre, it added. 

D&L Mining has extended the haulage drift in the bedrock about 70 metres downstream of crosscut one, from which a bulk sample was taken in 2012. The 3.5-metre by 3.5-metre crosscut three is being driven from the drift about 30 metres downstream from crosscut one. Ground support is provided by grouted anchors.

A second new crosscut, number four, has been driven from the drift a further 20 metres downstream and is now near the paleochannel contact and ready for development in tandem with crosscut three. Once both crosscuts have reached the centre of the paleochannel, mining activities will begin both up- and downstream from each crosscut with the aid of a road header, Omineca said.