Omineca Updates - Readies for Maiden Drill Program and Reopening Placer Recovery Operations at Wingdam
Omineca Updates - Readies for Maiden Drill Program and Reopening Placer Recovery
Operations at Wingdam
Saskatoon, SK. July 31, 2020 - Omineca Mining and Metals Ltd. (TSX -V: 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 7 th 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, p reparations 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 wor kings 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 d rilling
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 e xploration 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 alo ng strike towards the creek. Two other identical zones of quartz-rich shear ing were
recently identified by the crew in isolated bedrock exposures. The second zone, within the Ramos
Succession, is located about 3 40 m across strike or S W 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 t o 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 predecessor s 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 se ed-like flakes, which
normally travel less than 1 km in a fluvial environment. Less than 5% were fine-grained
(submillimeter), polished gold particles which are normally indicative of travelling further
distances.
To further aid in the exploration and dri lling 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 M ine 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.
For further information, please contact:
Tom MacNeill
President and CEO
1 (306) 653-2692
Or
Dean Nawata
Vice President, Business Development
1 (604) 561-2821
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 wo rds 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 o r 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.