Reunion Gold adds underground resource at Oko West ahead of Q2 PEA

South America-focused Reunion Gold‘s (TSXV: RGD; US-OTC: RGDFF) updated resource estimate for its Oko West project in Guyana shows a substantial increase in both grades and contained gold since its first resource released just last June.

Contained gold in the indicated category has increased by 72.4% to 4.3 million oz. in 64.6 million tonnes of material grading 2.05 grams gold per tonne. Nearly all of the indicated gold ounces are open pit.

For the first time, the resource includes an underground component, estimated from zones outside the constrained resources of the open pit. The bulk of the ounces are located in the Central underground zone, which represents a deeper extension of the high-grade zone in the Block 4 area of Kairuni.

The underground resources are mostly in the inferred category, which totalled 1.6 million oz. gold contained within 19.2 million tonnes grading 2.59 grams gold per tonne. The underground portion accounted for 1.1 million oz., while the open pit had 488,000 oz.

Gold grades in the indicated and inferred categories were also higher (up 11.6% and 28.5%, respectively) than in the 2023 estimate.

“The increase in both the size and grade has the potential to add tremendous value to the Oko West project,” Rick Howes, Reunion Gold’s CEO, said in a release. “We are particularly encouraged by both the substantial increase in the open pit resource size and grade as well as the initial size and grade of the underground resource, which remains open below the 1 km depth of drilling to date.”

Reunion made the Oko West greenfields discovery in 2021.

The updated resource incorporates 565 drill holes totalling more than 144,000 metres. Most of the resource definition drilling at Oko West has focused on the Kairuni zone, which covers 2 km in the northern portion of the project’s known 6-km gold-in-soil geochemical anomaly.

Howes says both the open pit and underground resources will be incorporated into an upcoming preliminary economic assessment, expected in the second quarter.

Drilling at the project is also continuing in and around Blocks 1 through 6 of the Kairuni zone, focusing on resource conversion and exploration. The program is expected to total about 30,000 metres of diamond drilling, most of which will be used for converting the underground resources.

Reunion Gold has a market capitalization of $519.4 million, with shares trading at 41¢ apiece on Monday.