Omai Gold Mines Corp. announced exploration results from initial trenching and drilling on the Broccoli Hill target, at its Omai project in Guyana. Trenching exposed a quartz-rich shear zone with samples assaying 29.3 g/t Au, 7.8 g/t Au, 5.0 g/t Au and 2.2 g/t Au along a 40-metre strike.

A first round of drilling on Broccoli Hill, totaling 690 metres, intersected gold mineralization with four of the six holes returning assays greater than 1 g/t Au and as high as 4.04 g/t Au over 0.9 m and 0.91 g/t over 6.8 m. Broccoli Hill has been worked by artisanal miners for over 100 years. Broad gold anomalies were identified by previous auger and soil surveys and the airborne geophysical signatures are similar to those of the Fennell deposit. The abundance of past placer gold workings in the lowlands flanking the hill, together with the numerous scattered artisanal workings on the hill itself, indicate a nearby gold source.

Exploration across this large 900m by 700m area has been hampered by a lack of knowledge of the underlying bedrock lithologies due to deep tropical weathering of the bedrock to clay-weathered saprolite to depths of 25 to 60m, complicated by transported laterite. Trenching with an excavator on the northwestern part of Broccoli Hill in November exposed a quartz-veinlet-rich zone. Samples assayed 29 g/t Au, 5.0 g/t Au, 2.2 g/t Au, and 7.8 g/t Au along a 40 m strike.

The orientation of these northeast-trending, northwest dipping veinlets is consistent with some of the higher-grade zones within the Fennell deposit, located less than 300 metres to the west. A 1990s era shallow auger hole approximately 80 metres east of this trench assayed 12.4 g/t Au from a sample taken from a 4 to 6 m depth.Six initial diamond drill holes totaling 690 metres were completed on Broccoli Hill in December, ranging in depth from 74 to 200 metres. Two of these holes (21ODD-027 and -032) were located to test the high grade, quartz-rich zone identified in the northwest trench and the other four holes were to test a combination of soil geochemical anomalies, interpreted structures from the geophysics and other possible quartz veining and felsic dikes identified from trenching and mapping.

These holes, spanning 850 metres across Broccoli Hill, provide considerable encouragement with four of the six holes returning assays of more than 1 g/t Au, three with values of greater than 2 g/t Au, and higher values of 4.04 g/t Au, and 2.96 g/t Au in holes 28 and 30, respectively. The gold is associated with intervals of quartz and quartz-ankerite veining and weak veinlet stockworks, and in hole 28 appears hosted in a deeply weathered felsic dike. Drill holes 21ODD-027 and -032 tested the northwest area of Broccoli Hill near the high-grade trench and auger samples.

Hole 21ODD-027 was collared in 25 m of laterite and saprolite, then cut several narrow intervals of sparse quartz-ankerite veining developed in weakly metamorphosed, propylitic-altered andesite and basalt. Assays include 1.3 g/t gold over 1.5 m from 72.0 to 73.5 m. Hole 21ODD-032, collared 60 metres east of hole 027, had better results with 0.91 g/t gold across 6.8 m, 2.40 g/t gold across 1.5 m and visible gold was identified at 145m, but with no significant assay results. This drilling provides evidence that the favorable northeast trending gold-bearing vein system seen in the Fennell deposit continues east into Broccoli Hill and to depths of at least 100 metres.

Holes 21ODD-028, -029 and -031 were drilled in the central area of Broccoli Hill. Hole 028, near the hilltop, tested a large >0.1 g/t gold-in-soil anomaly where trenching exposed a quartz-bearing ferruginous duricrust (with anomalous gold at 70 to 180 ppb) which is interpreted to be the weathering surface developed over a felsic intrusive. The hole cut a set of saprolitized quartz-bearing felsic dikes high in the hole, with one assaying 4.04 g/t gold over 0.9 metres.

Most of the hole intersected andesitic to basaltic lithologies with a few narrow quartz veins with only anomalous gold. Holes 029 and 031 were also located to test the broad soil anomaly. Hole 031 intersected an overprinting of silicification and patchy biotite alteration, indicative of higher temperatures and possibly of a nearby intrusive, but with no significant gold values.

Hole 21ODD-030, located over 840 metres east of hole 027, tested a strong soil-auger anomaly (with values >0.2 g/t gold). A sample from 18.0 to 19.5 metres returned 2.40 g/t gold over 1.5 m in a weathered basalt within the saprolite and additional quartz veining continued into fresh rock but without significant gold values. A scattering of quartz vein fragments observed while establishing the drill pad are likely related to this mineralization.

Within this hole, sheared granodiorite lenses were observed and below 75 m a visually impressive wispy calc-silicate alteration stockwork is developed in basalt, containing garnet-diopside-rhodonite altered xenoliths. No gold values were returned but late stage rhodochrosite veining noted near the bottom of the hole marks the contact between basalt and microdiorite. This late 2021 trenching and drilling provides valuable information on Broccoli Hill, confirming the presence of gold mineralization across the large target area.

Mineralization is consistent with the previously mined deposits, being associated with stockworks of quartz veinlets or brittle fractured and annealed felsic dikes. With this information, additional field work including trenching and mapping recommenced this week. Drilling is expected to re-start in 3 to 4 weeks.