Omai Gold Mines Corp. announced that it has commenced the 2023 drill program at its 100%-owned Omai Gold Property in Guyana. A 5,000-metre drill program will focus on targets along the 7-kilometre extension of the prolific Wenot Shear Corridor and those delineated by geophysics, geochemistry and historic workings.

Additional drilling is designed to optimize further expansion of the Wenot deposit, along strike and at depth. The 2023 exploration program is guided by the results of the 2022 mapping, geochemical survey and trenching programs, combined with new results from the application of magnetic vector inversions of the airborne geophysics survey data. Exploration at the Omai project in 2022 included trenching, mapping, and geochemical programs which were integrated with the historic data to refine and prioritize the 2023 exploration targets.

Many gold deposits have very subtle or, in many instances, no geophysical signatures, adding to the challenge of gold exploration. Exploration at the Omai project benefits from prominent and distinctive geophysical signatures over the main deposits. Most of the Wenot shear-hosted gold deposit has a magnetite alteration overprint that appears to increase with depth and is expressed as a high magnetic response in the geophysics data.

At Gilt Creek, the gold-bearing stockwork quartz-veined quartz diorite intrusion is associated with a low magnetic signature. In late 2022, the Company engaged a magnetic inversion-modelling expert geophysicist to work with the airborne data, to assist in better refinement of new Wenot-type and Gilt Creek-type targets. This work has significantly contributed to the recent target development for the large-target Broccoli Hill, Boneyard and Pyramid areas which are part of the current first half of 2023 drill program.

Broccoli Hill is immediately east of the past producing Gilt Creek deposit and north of the Wenot deposit. Broccoli Hill has seen limited shallow drilling and the six short holes completed in late 2021 on the north side of the hill intersected gold in four of the six holes drilled. These scout holes were drilled to gain information on the underlying lithologies that are covered by a thick weathered saprolite layer.

Broccoli Hill has attracted artisanal miners for many years and soil geochemical results show broad gold anomalies. The new 3D geophysical modelling indicates a large magnetic low that appears to be connected to the magnetic low associated with Omai's Gilt Creek deposit and the overlying Fennell mine, which produced 2.4 million ounces @ 1.5 g/t Au. Modelling suggests this magnetic low occurs on the southern side of Broccoli Hill, although trenching, mapping, sampling and subsequent drilling has confirmed a series of gold-bearing veinlets on the northern side of the hill, perhaps in a different geological setting.

Due to the extent of the Broccoli Hill anomalies, several holes will be needed to adequately test this target. The Boneyard target is a well defined magnetic low feature with a 600-700 m strike length and lying 200 to 500 metres north of the Wenot shear corridor. The Wenot Shear Corridor was the locus of multi-phase, significant crustal deformation centered on a regional scale sediment-volcanic contact.

Any nearby intrusive bodies would likely have been subjected to brittle or ductile fracturing and shearing creating possible conduits for subsequent gold bearing fluids. The Boneyard shows evidence of extensive historical artisanal activity, limited to surficial saprolite and alluvium. Across the Guiana Shield, areas of artisanal mining frequently correlate to areas with gold mineralization in the underlying bedrock.

An initial two to three holes are planned but additional drilling is likely required to adequately test this anomaly. The Pyramid target, approximately two kilometres east of the Wenot pit, corresponds to a one-kilometre long, high magnetic anomaly. This anomaly is elongated along and lies directly over the known continuation of the Wenot shear.

It is the closest geophysical analogue on the property to the central portion of the Wenot Deposit. Three to four initial holes are planned to test this Pyramid target. Although the central part of the Wenot Deposit corresponds to a very strong magnetic anomaly, significant gold mineralization at the west end of Wenot does not exhibit a high magnetic signature, indicating that gold targets across the property wouldn't necessarily have distinctive magnetic signatures.