Omineca Mining and Metals Ltd. (TSXV: OMM) (OTCQB: OMMSF) has announced the discovery of a hard rock gold zone at its Wingdam exploration project in the Cariboo Mining District of south-central British Columbia. The finding, based on results from the 2025 winter drill program, marks a significant step in understanding the origin of the rich paleoplacer gold deposits that have been mined in the area for over 165 years.
The initial gold intercepts were drilled 500 meters west and at depths lower than the elevation of the company’s underground paleoplacer gold project. According to Omineca, this validates their assertion that a proximal lode source exists for the placer gold found beneath Lightning Creek. The discovery aligns with recent empirical evidence from underground workings indicating that Lightning Creek once flowed from west to east, opposite its present direction, when the gold was eroded into the valley. This suggests the source lies downstream of the placer deposits.
Highlights from the drill program include WD25-41, which returned 4.84 g/t gold over 1.07 meters from 158.98 to 160.05 meters, and WD25-42, which returned 1.25 g/t gold over 2.0 meters from 345.00 to 347.00 meters. The highest-grade intercept was found in a section of amygdaloidal basalt associated with the Slide Mountain Terrane, a belt of ancient seafloor rocks thrust upward. These ultramafic oceanic crustal rocks are affiliated with many of British Columbia’s orogenic gold camps, including the Barkerville Gold camp (Osisko Development) 30 kilometers east of Wingdam, the Cassiar gold camp in northern B.C., the historic Bralorne mining camp to the west, and the Greenwood Mining District in southern B.C.
The company’s exploration thesis centers on changes in watershed flow direction caused by isostatic depression of the crust under the weight of the Cordilleran glacial ice sheet. This weight pushed down the area west of Wingdam, causing the Fraser River to switch from northerly flow to its present southern course some 760,000 years ago and, later, approximately 200,000 years ago, Lightning Creek to change from flowing east to flowing west. These forces, combined with potential re-activation and subsidence of the Eureka Thrust Fault, explain why the lode source is located downstream (west) at depths equivalent to and below the level of the Wingdam underground placer workings. In 2012, 173.4 ounces of placer gold were recovered from a single 2.4-meter-wide, 2.4-meter-high, and 23.5-meter-long crosscut sample.
The reversed water flow thesis has been confirmed in underground workings. The opening of Crosscut #2 shows imbrication in the brown gravel layer, indicating water flow was west to east, opposite to the present flow direction. This geological evidence supports the company’s interpretation.
The 2025 drill program completed 3,091.9 meters in six NQ diamond drill holes. Drilling was done by Newmac, with core logged and sampled by TerraLogic Exploration of Cranbrook, BC. A total of 1,978 drill core samples and 179 QA/QC samples were collected. The program was designed to follow up on mineralization found in 2024, targeting areas downdip of mineralization in the ultramafic unit intersected in WD24-37, and along strike of the Eureka Thrust Fault toward a UAV magnetic high.
WD25-41 was a downdip follow-up of WD24-37, which had anomalous gold concentrations (870 ppb Au from 93.40 to 95.40 m) in a brecciated and faulted ultramafic amygdular basalt. WD25-41 intersected the most anomalous gold result on the property to date, with localized fracturing containing 2.0-6.0 cm calcite-quartz veins and disseminated pyrite traces. WD25-42, drilled from the same pad at a northeasterly azimuth, targeted the magnetic high and intersected mineralization deeper in a lithic wacke with minor quartz veinlets and disseminated pyrrhotite and pyrite.
Omineca plans to expand the footprint of this discovery and ramp up investigation of hydrothermal gold mineralization associated with the Eureka Thrust Fault. The next phase of exploration will focus on the immediate vicinity of this discovery. All scientific and technical information in this news release has been prepared by or approved by Stephen Kocsis, P.Geo., an independent qualified person under National Instrument 43-101.
