Omineca Mining and Metals Ltd. (TSXV: OMM) (OTCQB: OMMSF) has announced a significant hard rock gold discovery at its Wingdam exploration project in the Cariboo Mining District of British Columbia. The discovery, made during the 2025 winter drill program, is located 500 meters west of and at depths lower than the company's underground paleoplacer gold project. This finding supports the company's assertion of a proximal lode source for the rich paleoplacer gold found beneath Lightning Creek.
The initial gold intercepts include 4.84 g/t gold over 1.07 meters in drill hole WD25-41, and 1.25 g/t gold over 2.0 meters in WD25-42. These results are particularly significant because they coincide with evidence from the underground placer workings indicating that Lightning Creek flowed from west to east when the gold was eroded into the valley, contrary to its present east-to-west flow. This suggests the source of the gold lies downstream of the placer deposits.
The discovery is the culmination of 165 years of exploration in the Lightning Creek valley, where placer gold was first found in the 1860s. The lode source is associated with the Slide Mountain Terrane, an ophiolite sequence (ancient seafloor thrust upward) that is well preserved along the Eureka Thrust Fault in the area. This geological setting is related to many of British Columbia's orogenic gold camps, including the Barkerville Gold camp 30 kilometers east of Wingdam, the Cassiar camp, the Bralorne camp, and the Greenwood Mining District.
The company's exploration thesis involves changes in watershed flow direction caused by isostatic depression under the Cordilleran glacial ice sheet. This process caused the Fraser River to reverse its flow around 760,000 years ago and Lightning Creek to change direction approximately 200,000 years ago. These forces, combined with potential re-activation of the Eureka Thrust Fault, explain why the lode source is located downstream and at depth relative to the placer workings.
The 2025 drill program completed 3,091.9 meters in six NQ diamond drill holes, following up on mineralization found in 2024. The drilling targeted areas at depths below the underground placer workings and along the Eureka Thrust Fault. The highest-grade intercept was found in a section of amygdaloidal basalt, a rock type associated with many of the province's gold deposits.
Omineca plans to expand the footprint of this discovery in the next phase of exploration. The company's flagship Wingdam project encompasses 61,392 hectares of mineral tenures and over 15 linear kilometers of placer claims along the Lightning Creek valley. The company also holds the Fraser Canyon Project, which is slated to reinitiate development for placer gold recovery.
The technical information in this release has been prepared by Stephen Kocsis, P.Geo., an independent qualified person under National Instrument 43-101. Omineca's president and CEO, Tom MacNeill, can be contacted for further information.
