By Antonio Dey
Reunion Gold Inc, in a notice published in yesterday’s Guyana Chronicle, has submitted an application to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) seeking permission to conduct gold mining in the Cuyuni Mining District in Region Seven.
The Canadian-based gold exploration and development company, if given the green light by the EPA, will be awarded the opportunity to conduct gold mining and processing at the confluence of the Oko and Kairuni Rivers.
The company describes itself as a leading gold explorer in the Guiana Shield, South America.
In 2021, the company made a gold discovery at its Oko West Project in Guyana where, after 22 months of drilling, it announced an initial Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) containing 2.475 Moz (million ounces) of gold in indicated resources grading 1.84 g/t Au (grammes of gold per ton of overburden) and 1.762 Moz of gold in inferred resources grading 2.02 g/t Au.
Drilling is continuing on other priority exploration targets within the Oko West Project area.
The project summary up to press time had not been uploaded on the EPA’s website as promised but according to a technical report, The Oko West Project comprises one (1) Prospecting License (PL 004/2022) issued to Reunion Gold Inc, the company’s 100 per cent-owned Guyanese subsidiary, on September 23, 2022.
According to the technical report, the prospecting licence (PL) is valid for three years and is renewable for up to two years. The PL has a surface area of approximately 10,890 acres (4,407 hectares).
According to the technical document as seen by Stabroek News, the government holds the surface rights to the PL area.
The gold company, headquartered in Toronto, Canada, commenced drilling at Oko West in December 2020, with three reconnaissance holes targeting primary mineralization, beneath the previously reported trench results.
After the initial discovery, drilling in 2021, 2022 and 2023 has been mainly focused on delineating gold mineralization and satisfying the drill spacing required to calculate a maiden Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE), according to the project’s technical report.
In 2022, Reunion engaged Environmental Resource Management (ERM) to conduct a maiden environmental baseline study of the Oko West project area. The ERM used several subject matter experts from the University of Guyana to conduct the fieldwork. The baseline study completed in 2022 focused on the project area’s physical and biological baseline characteristics.
To complement the conventional biological baseline survey and to map biodiversity, ERM also collected ten (10) water samples for environmental DNA determinations using the methodology developed by Nature Metrics.
In May 2023, the gold company again retained the services of ERM, this time to conduct a second-year wet-and-dry-season physical and biological baseline survey over an expanded area. Additionally, the project will undertake maiden studies on the following baseline disciplines: socioeconomics, community health, air quality and climate, cultural heritage and archaeology.
Recently, the EPA determined that because only exploration and early-stage development work was being undertaken by the company, no Environmental Authorization (EA) permit was required. The agency added that Reunion Gold would need to apply for such an Environmental Authorization permit when the project reaches the development and operational phases. This was confirmed in a letter from the EPA’s Executive Director, Kemraj Parsram, to Reunion Gold, dated July 4, 2023.
Full engineering
In February of this year, Reunion Gold announced that G Mining Services Inc. had been chosen to provide full engineering and project development services for its Oko West Project in Guyana. In a press release, the company said that it is already working with G Mining towards the release of a MRE on the Kairuni zone, by around mid-year 2023.
The services to be provided by G Mining would follow up on the MRE and include a planned Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) on the Oko West Project. G Mining will be available to be drawn upon by the company if warranted, for pre-feasibility and feasibility studies, as well as basic and detailed engineering and procurement, construction, and commissioning services.
In 2023, Reunion Gold plans to complete Phase 1 step-out and infill drilling of the Kairuni zone to outline the full extent of the open pit mineralized envelope of this zone.
The following tasks will be to complete the MRE by mid-year and the PEA study around year-end 2023. In parallel with this, the company will continue to explore three additional priority exploration targets on the Oko West Project, including the Takatu zone, which represents the southern four kilometres of the same sheared contact that contains the Kairuni zone. Its objective is to outline additional potential areas of gold mineralization at Oko West in the near term, such that any additional potential resource ounces could be added to future studies.
Rick Howes, CEO of Reunion Gold, in the release, said, “There is no engineering firm that has the mine building experience in the Guiana Shield and in tropical environments that G Mining Services has.”
“Louis Gignac and G Mining have a successful track record of designing, building and/or operating such mines as the Omai Gold Mine and Omai Bauxite in Guyana; Gross Rosebel and Merian in Suriname; Fruta del Norte in Ecuador; and currently Tocantinzinho in Brazil.”
According to Howes, these projects were consistently delivered on schedule and on or under budget and successfully ramped up to full production.
The CEO noted that Gignac and G Mining have over 15 years of experience in Guyana (1990-2005) and their team is well-regarded in the country and globally.
“I am thrilled to be working with Louis Gignac Sr. and his whole team on this very significant discovery at Oko West in Guyana.”
Howes also expressed confidence in G Mining and their ability to produce results. “We have worked together with G Mining for many years and have great confidence in their ability to help us successfully bring this project from discovery to production. In addition to announcing an MRE on the Kairuni zone and rapidly advancing the PEA, the company will also prioritize exploration on three additional highly prospective targets at Oko West where we hope to outline additional gold mineralization that could potentially be added to the scope of the Oko West Project”, he said.
