Omineca Provides Update on Wingdam Project and Rescheduling of Annual General Meeting
Omineca management remains fully committed to developing the Wingdam project and is confident that the proposed RTO transaction will receive TSX Venture Exchange and shareholder approval. Notice of the new meeting date will be announced once it has been determined. Omineca still intends to utilize the Notice and Access provisions of National Instrument 54-101 and National Instrument 51-102 for the meeting, as initially reported in the notice dated March 25, 2013.
Omineca is continuing to advance the Wingdam and Fraser Canyon projects. As well as completing exploration work on the two projects (see OMM news release April 3, 2013), Omineca is working on a revised mine plan that will be implemented upon resumption of production at the Wingdam. As operator of the project, Omineca has established an interim arrangement with CVG to facilitate the ongoing work at the Wingdam project.
About the Wingdam/Lightning Creek Project
The Wingdam Project provides a unique opportunity for Omineca to acquire near-term gold production in a proven district. The property overlies both placer and hard-rock tenures along the Deep Lead Channel of Lightning Creek, where topographic conditions have created a deep overburden accumulation which effectively resulted in a large portion of the channel being excluded from conventional surface placer mining activity. On the Wingdam property, drilling and geophysical surveys indicate that the Deep Lead Channel may occur throughout the entire 2.4km length of the Wingdam placer tenures, extending upstream and downstream an undetermined distance. Numerous attempts have been made to mine the Deep Lead Channel in the Wingdam area since the late 1880s, but all were hampered by an influx of water and unstable ground conditions and were ultimately abandoned.
In 2012 CVG successfully completed a crosscut drift 23.5m across the Deep Lead Channel along the bedrock/gravel interface, using the Australian deep-lead mining method combined with a ground-freeze method. This effort not only proved the applicability of the freeze method, but also provided a bulk sample whereby "the gold recovered from the 23.5-meter drift advance across the paleochannel true width amounted to 173.495 ounces of raw placer gold (900 fineness) from 140 bank cubic meters. The refined-equivalent gold grade across this width amounted to 34.55 g/m3 or 0.453 oz/tonne. The grade across a central portion of the paleochannel totaling 14.8 m (3.8 to 18.6m) averaged 46.30 g/m3 or 0.608 oz/tonne.
The abundance and physical nature of the placer gold recovered during the 2012 test mining operation indicates that it is in part, locally derived. Little or no systematic exploration work has been carried out on the property to test for the occurrence of lode gold, leaving good potential for the exploration and possible discovery of in-situ (hard-rock) gold mineralization in addition to the presence of a proven placer deposit.
The Wingdam project is currently permitted under a BC Ministry of Natural Resource Operations permit and a BC Ministry of Environment Effluent Discharge permit, and has been under care and maintenance since September 25, 2012.
About the Fraser Canyon Project
The Fraser Canyon Property is located 12 kilometers north of the city of Quesnel. The property consists of 2221 hectares of placer claims and leases and 1221 hectares of mineral claims. The tenures are strategically located along 15.8-kilometers of deeply-buried gold-enriched Miocene fluvial conglomerates of the Fraser Bend Formation. The gold-enriched zone along the paleochannel floor averages 2.13 m thick and reaches up to 38 m wide.
The paleochannel was explored and partially mined underground at two locations on the north and south sides of the Fraser Canyon called the Tertiary (1907-1917) and Canyon (1986) mines. The two mines collectively produced 1,482 ounce of raw placer gold (892 fineness) or 1,322 refined ounces. There has been very little exploration and development work in the area since the Canyon Mine closed in 1986.
In 2009 CVG dewatered the Canyon Mine and rehabilitated the underground workings. The workings consist of a 160-meter long decline, a 235-meter long exploration drift that follows the length of the paleochannel floor, and a series of 13 crosscuts. The development work was carried out by All Star Resources in 1986, who reported a total of 421.6 ounces of refined gold recovered from 5,625 m3 of conglomerate and bedrock material extracted from the drift and crosscuts. The average amount of gold along the paleochannel length in the Canyon Mine area is estimated to contain 8.561 ounces per linear meter.
About Omineca Mining and Metals Ltd.
Omineca Mining and Metals was created by way of a Plan of Arrangement on May 20th, 2011. Shareholders of Copper Canyon Resources Ltd. approved the plan to reorganize the company's mineral property assets in an effort to maximize shareholder value. Under the terms of the arrangement, two of Copper Canyon's projects, Abo (Harrison) Gold and Kiwi, were transferred into Omineca on a one-for-four share basis.
Technical aspects of this news release have been reviewed and approved by Charles C. Downie, P.Geo., hereby identified as the "Qualified Person" in accordance with National Instrument 43-101.
On behalf of the Board of Directors
Signed, "Tim J. Termuende"
President and CEO
For further information, please contact:
Omineca Mining and Metals Ltd.
Mike Labach at
1 866 HUNT ORE (486 8673)
Email: mgl@ominecamining.com or visit our website at www.ominecamining.com
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release may contain forward-looking statements including but not limited to comments regarding the timing and content of upcoming work programs, geological interpretations, receipt of property titles, potential mineral recovery processes, etc. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and therefore, involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements.