Omai Gold Mines Limited (OGML) and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) are expected to conclude an agreement shortly under which Omai will pursue mineral exploration at Eagle Mountain in the Potaro area.
In an exclusive briefing with Stabroek Business recently, Omai Human Resources Manager Norman Mc Lean said that under the agreement Omai’s licence will allow the company to prospect for gold, valuable minerals and molybdenum as well as base metals including copper, lead, zinc, tin and tungsten.
Under the agreement the company will pay the Government of Guyana an annual rent of US$3 per acre for the first group – gold, valuable minerals and molybdenum and an additional US$1.50. per acre for the second group – base metals including copper, lead, zinc, tin and tungsten.
According to Mc Lean Omai’s Eagle Mountain exploration exercise amounts to an investment of around US$2M and reflects the company’s ongoing commitment to doing business in Guyana. He said that while the future of the present exploration exercise will determine the long-term feasibility of the Eagle Mountain project he believed that it was entirely possible that the future could see another Omai mining operation in Guyana on a scale comparable to the one that is due to officially come to an end on October 1 this year.
Under the terms of the agreement Omai will also be allowed – subject to the submission and approval by the GGMC of a feasibility study – to apply for a mining licence to exploit minerals found in the Eagle Mountain area. The licence will cover an initial period of twenty years in the first instance and will be renewable for periods of no more than seven years thereafter.
Mc Lean said that he could provide no definitive date for the signing of the agreement at this time but disclosed that Omai and the GGMC had almost completed studying a draft of the document.
Under the prospecting agreement Omai will be required to provide the GGMC with various types of technical data on the Eagle Mountain area on a quarterly basis as well as all gold, valuable minerals and base metals found during the exploration phase.
Mc Lean told Stabroek Business that the agreement between the company and the GGMC also included specific stipulations with regard to “a mindfulness of both the indigenous communities in the Eagle Mountain area as well as a recognition of the importance of applying a sense of environmental responsibility during the exploration exercise.” He said that he believed that during the course of its mining operations in Guyana Omai had already demonstrated a capacity to adhere to the highest environmental standards.
