Galantas Gold Corp on Friday laid out its plans for an updated mineral resource estimate at its Omagh project in Northern Ireland.

Galantas Gold owns the Omagh open pit gold mine in Country Tyrone, Northern Ireland. The firm is based in Toronto, Canada.

Galantas said it is targeting an updated NI 43-101-compliant mineral resource estimate by the end of the second quarter of 2023, in order to incorporate an additional 7,800 metres of drilling.

Many of the drill holes as part of this drilling have indicated higher gold grades and thicker width in dilation zones, according to Galantas, with internal modelling suggesting that the grades and widths of mineralisation increase within the dilation zones at the Kearney and Joshua veins.

As a result of the potentially high grade and thicker widths, the company has decided to proceed with a sustainable mine plan, targeted by the end of the second quarter of 2023. This will allow the company to develop at lower levels in order to optimise production, it said.

The mine plan will determine the suitability of targeting an initial 10,000 gold ounces a year, with the potential for this to increase to 20,000 ounces a year.

The plan is expected to include development options for mining at the lower levels of the Kearney vein and to the north and south extensions of the vein’s existing workings.

In addition, Galantas intends to drill additional underground holes at Kerr, and review the location for a portal at the Joshua vein to optimise access to the north and south extensions for future production.

The company noted that recruitment and retention of underground mining crews at the Omagh project has continued to be a challenge due to the consequences of only being able to recruit miners from the UK and Ireland. This, it explained, has ‘greatly’ impacted productivity.

Shares in Galantas Gold were up 0.6% at 22.39 pence in London on Friday afternoon.

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