SASKATOON, SK, July 31, 2020 /CNW/ - Omineca Mining and
Metals Ltd. (TSXV: OMM) ("Omineca" or the "Company") reports an
update for both its maiden lode gold drilling program at the
Wingdam gold project and the recommencement of the placer gold bulk
sampling program in the Cariboo Mining District, 25 km west of
Barkerville, BC.
Field work for the exploration and drilling program was
initiated on May 7th and
is ongoing. A diamond drill is now on site and the commencement of
drilling will be announced once plans are finalized and permits are
confirmed.
At the same time, preparations are being finalized to mobilize
remaining equipment to site at Wingdam and the crew is now waiting
for the water level of Lightning Creek to subside in order to begin
dewatering the decline to the underground workings of the placer
recovery program, which will also be announced upon
commencement.
Lode Gold Exploration Drilling
The central focus of
Omineca's lode gold exploration program is to locate the presumed
multiple bedrock sources of placer gold recovered by Omineca in the
2012 underground bulk sampling program which yielded 173.5 ounces
of gold across the width of the Deep Lead Paleochannel beneath
Lighting Creek. The preliminary results from the current field
programs are validating Omineca's hypothesis that the sources of
the placer gold at Wingdam are likely in very close proximity
upstream to where the gold was recovered.
The current field program is designed to assist in drill
targeting for the 2020 drilling program. Access and drilling
permits have been submitted for the first 27 drill holes (~8,000 m)
and approval for this work is anticipated within the coming
weeks.
A geological team from Axiom Exploration Group Ltd. ("Axiom")
alongside Omineca's lead geologist, Stephen
Kocsis, have conducted a series of field sampling programs
through May and June with an initial focus on a region upstream
(northeast) and within an approximate 5 kilometer radius from the
first underground crosscut bulk sample location where 173.5 ounces
of placer gold were recovered from the Deep Lead Paleochannel.
The current exploration work area was subject to an earlier
SkyTEM survey where a large electro-magnetic ("EM") signature was
identified immediately upstream of Omineca's underground paleo
placer gold recovery program at Wingdam. The Lightning Creek river
valley represents a major interpreted structural and erosional
feature cross-cutting through several parallel structures overlying
the large SkyTEM EM anomaly. The current area of exploration and
drilling encompasses the large targets identified by the SkyTEM
survey as well as targets identified and confirmed by Omineca's
2018/19 airborne UAV magnetic survey program.
Axiom's May and June sampling programs collected 170 outcrop
samples, of which 143 samples were sent for geochemical analysis. A
small soil sampling program was also conducted where 15 samples
were sent for geochemical analysis to determine the elemental
pathfinders most likely associated with a confirmed outcrop Au
anomaly within the exploration area. Axiom reports that based on
the results of the 2020 sampling programs to date, the conclusive
initial recommendation is that a comprehensive soil sampling
program should be completed 'upstream' to the northeast of the 2012
placer exploration drift and surrounding select outcrop geochemical
anomalies.
A team from Axiom is currently conducting the soil sampling
program which was recommended in the logistics report from the
first two programs. This program is comprised of a 100 m x 50 m grid
across the primary areas of interest.
Bedrock mapping has identified several significant fault and
shear zone structures within the immediate target area along the
productive part of Lightning Creek as well as multiple Paleozoic
intrusive bodies exposed along the eastern half of the work
area.
A quartz-rich mylonitic shear zone of note has been identified
and sampled by the team of exploration geologists in the current
program. The shear zone was identified in outcrops at the contact
between the Harveys Ridge and Ramos successions forming a z-fold.
This zone strikes across an area about 800
m upstream along Lightning Creek from the Wingdam
paleochannel crosscut. Similar sheared quartz was also mapped and
sampled in an isolated exposure about 300
m SE along strike towards the creek. Two other identical
zones of quartz-rich shearing were recently identified by the crew
in isolated bedrock exposures. The second zone, within the Ramos
Succession, is located about 340 m
across strike or SW of the first zone and the third is located near
the boundary between Harveys Ridge and Keithley successions. The
geological team is extending mapping and sampling to the two new
zones.
Stephen Kocsis notes that this
structural control pattern is analogous to some of the gold
mineralized structures found at Barkerville, specifically the
contact between the Hardscrabble and the Downey successions where
historic and now contemporary gold deposits have been delineated by
Osisko Gold Royalties and its predecessors on Island Mountain, Cow
Mountain, and Barkerville Mountain adjacent to Williams Creek. Williams
Creek, like Lightning Creek, was a prolific placer gold
producer in the Cariboo Mining District. Mr. Kocsis further notes
the correlation between the elevated Au concentrations found in the
Ramos Succession with that found in the Downey Succession at the
Cariboo Gold Project near Barkerville which is typically 30 to 60
ppb Au. Of particular note was that the May sampling program
completed by Axiom reported geochemical assays where 100% of the
samples returned reportable Au values, many within the analogous
Barkerville range, including several substantially exceeding the
typical values up to 236 ppb Au.
Prior to the May-June program, which is beginning to validate
the theory that the source of the placer gold is proximal to
Wingdam and Lightning Creek, inspection of the placer gold
recovered from the 2012 bulk sample suggested multiple lode gold
sources upstream of the Wingdam Mine. Many of the nuggets recovered
were jagged and angular, contained quartz inclusions, and a high
silver content which indicates a minimal transportation distance
from the bedrock source (<100 meters). Most of the gold
particles recovered were coarse-grained flax seed-like flakes,
which normally travel less than 1 km in a fluvial environment. Less
than 5% was fine-grained (submillimeter), polished gold particles
which are normally indicative of travelling further distances.
To further aid in the exploration and drilling for the lode
sources of the placer gold, Omineca intends to do further
geo-scientific work on the morphology of the placer gold recovered
from the crosscut bulk sample and future extraction to match and
identify the surrounding source rocks and structures. Details will
be announced once plans and methodologies are finalized.
Underground Placer Gold Bulk Sample
Program
Preparations have been made to dewater and re-enter
the decline and begin underground rehabilitation work to continue
bulk sampling the paleochannel where the first test crosscut left
off. Both settling ponds have been rehabilitated and preparations
are being finalized to mobilize pumps and a freeze plant to the
Wingdam Mine site. All the required freeze piping remains installed
to the bulk sample face and will only require a pressure test for
recommissioning. The crew is now waiting for the water level of
Lightning Creek to subside after an unusually heavy freshet this
year to begin pumping water from the mine workings. With an
engineered grout plug system initiated last year, it is anticipated
that dewatering should now be reduced in time to ~3-4 weeks
followed by rehabilitation and underground preparation time of
another 4 weeks before freezing and mining operations are to
begin.
The first phase of underground placer recovery is planned to be
approximately 125 crosscuts, similar in size and scope to the 2012
crosscut bulk sample, over the first 300
m of the estimated 2,400 m of
the paleochannel that has been subjected to extensive study through
3D seismic, and historic and contemporary drill holes. Future
development plans include geological investigation and evaluation
along the total ~17 km of potential paleochannel (upstream and
downstream) within Omineca's current claims.
Qualified Person (QP)
Stephen
Kocsis, P.Geo., is a qualified person within the context of
National Instrument 43-101 and has prepared, read, and approved the
technical aspects of this news release.
About Omineca Mining and Metals Ltd.
Omineca Mining
and Metals Ltd. controls its flagship Wingdam Project and the
Fraser Canyon Project through its wholly owned subsidiary CVG
Mining Ltd. The Wingdam Project is located 45 km east of
Quesnel B.C. on the Barkerville
highway. The property includes both placer and hard-rock tenures
along the Lightning Creek valley, where topographic conditions
created a thick overburden which preserved a large portion of the
channel from conventional surface placer mining activity.
Forward Looking Statements
This release includes forward-looking statements regarding
Omineca and its business. Such statements are based on the current
expectations and views of future events of Omineca's management. In
some cases, the forward-looking statements can be identified by
words or phrases such as "may", "will", "expect", "plan",
"anticipate", "intend", "potential", "estimate", "believe" or the
negative of these terms, or other similar expressions intended to
identify forward-looking statements. The forward-looking events and
circumstances discussed in this release may not occur and could
differ materially as a result of the failure to consummate the
project financing, the economic feasibility of the Wingdam Project,
known and unknown risk factors and uncertainties affecting Omineca,
including risks regarding the resource industry, economic factors
and the equity markets generally and many other factors beyond the
control of Omineca. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed.
Forward-looking statements and information by their nature are
based on assumptions and involve known and unknown risks,
uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results,
performance or achievements, or industry results, to be materially
different from any future results, performance or achievements
expressed or implied by such forward-looking statement or
information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance
on any forward-looking statements or information. Forward-looking
statements speak only as of the date on which they are made and
Omineca undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any
forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information,
future events, or otherwise, except as required by applicable
securities laws.
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services
Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX
Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or
accuracy of this release.
SOURCE Omineca Mining and Metals Ltd