Reunion Gold Corporation TSXV:RGD is a specialist gold explorer focused on opportunities in the Guiana Shield in South America. It was creating something of a stir at the recent Swiss Mining Institute conference in Zurich this week. The company notably made an exciting gold discovery at Oko West in Guyana in 2021, where it continues to outline gold mineralisation.
Reunion Gold has been winning industry plaudits having garnered the Mines & Money Discovery of the Year Award and the TSXV Venture 50 award as one of the top performing mining stocks. It was up over 200% in 2022.
What is the Guiana Shield and why does it matter?
The Guiana Shield is regarded as one of the most prospective locations globally for the discovery of world class gold deposits. It covers three countries in South America, namely Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana. These all contain large greenstone belts and geologists anticipate they could yield significant gold discoveries in coming years.
The Guiana Shield is already well-endowed with substantial gold deposits. There are at least 15 mines operating here with an estimated 110m ounces of gold recognised to date. But surprisingly there remains a lack of exploration activity here.
With a frontier opportunity like this, Reunion Gold has been developing an extensive network of local contacts and drawing on its own geological expertise in the region to generate new gold projects. It wants to develop the right partnerships that can see these through to fruition.
In Oko West Reunion has a brand new gold discovery south of the historic Oko gold district. It confirmed gold mineralisation here in 2020 following a geochemical survey, trenching and an initial drill program. The mineralisation coincides with a 6km long gold-in-soil geochemical anomaly.
Oko West currently falls under a prospecting license with an area of around 44 sq km which is held by Reunion Gold’s Guyanese subsidiary. The project is 100% owned with no back rights. Drilling is being carried out here at an accelerated pace.
Reunion Gold looks well financed having raised CAD 48m in February and July 2022. This has allowed it to significantly ramp up its drill capacity on the site.
Experience in Guyana essential for this project
When pushing into a frontier area here there are a couple of things investors need to look for: experience with the local jurisdiction and a jurisdiction that is not going to throw obstacles in the way of the project. In this case the management team has over 225 years of combined experience in the Guiana Shield, and is led by Executive Chairman David Fennell who has been working in the area since 1985 (he was CEO of Golden Star Resources).
Guyana itself is a stable and English speaking jurisdiction with a long history of mining gold, bauxite, diamonds and manganese. Significant new investments in infrastructure are now underway and the country also boasts a stable mining legislation framework with clear licensing regulations. Gold accounted for 15% of its GDP in 2016.
Currently Reunion has completed 44,000 metres of diamond drilling across 207 holes and has a mineralised envelope at the Kairuni zone. This has demonstrated a down dip continuation of mineralisation to an approximate depth of 970m. High grade intervals continue to be intersected. We see 66.87 g/t Au over 8.5m and 21.32 g/t Au over 17.6m from drill results to date.
This is one to keep an eye on as further drilling results will be forthcoming and look positive so far. Reunion says it will continue to de-risk and advance the Kairuni zone and will also be exploring Oko West outside of Kairuni including a complete detailed ground Mag along sheared contact.
