Omineca Mining and Metals (TSXV: OMM; OTCBB: OMMSF) has begun processing gold-bearing gravel at its Wingdam paleoplacer project in the Cariboo Mining District of British Columbia. The project enjoys the distinction of being Canada’s only placer deposit to be mined underground.
The company recovered 10.25 oz. of coarse, nuggety gold with 90.9% purity from about 2.5 metres of advance at the bedrock contact of the paleochannel in crosscut #3. The initial thickness of the gravel exposed in the face overlying bedrock was approximately 0.5 to 1.0 meter which is expected to increase in thickness as the bedrock rim dips toward the center of the channel floor.
Omineca’s joint venture partner D&L Mining has extended the haulage drift in the bedrock about 70 metres downstream of crosscut #1, from which a bulk sample was taken in 2012. The 3.5 x 3.5 metre crosscut #3 is being driven from the drift approximately 30 metres downstream from crosscut #1. Ground support is provided by grouted anchors.
A second new crosscut, #4, 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 #3. Once both crosscuts have reached the center of the paleochannel, mining activities will begin both up- and downstream from each crosscut with the aid of a road header.
In this type of paleochannel setting, the largest amount of placer gold tends to be in the lower points of the central portion of the paleochannel where through natural waterborne gravity sorting, the highest concentrations of heavier materials, like gold, settle. This feature was noted in the bulk sample crosscut where of the 173 oz. recovered from a 23.5-meter crosscut, approximately 75% was produced from a 5.5-meter section in the middle of the channel.
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