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Reunion Gold (TSXV: RGD) announced Tuesday that the Guyana government has accepted the terms of scope for the environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) on the Oko West project, allowing the company to move ahead with permitting.
Rick Howes, CEO of Reunion Gold, said the approval is a significant milestone in the advancement of the project’s environmental permitting, and the company remains on track with its accelerated development timeline for Oko West, which includes the completion of a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) by the end of Q2 2024.
In September 2023, Reunion applied for its environmental permit and subsequently collaborated with Guyana’s environmental agency to establish the terms of scope (ToS) for the ESIA. As part of this process, the gold explorer conducted meetings with both government agencies and local communities to determine the essential elements to be incorporated into the ToS.
An approval of the ToS is required for the company to move forward with work on the ESIA, which it anticipates submitting early in the fourth quarter this year.
Reunion said it has completed most of the environmental and social baseline studies that are required for the ESIA. This includes the fieldwork for the second phase of baseline studies, encompassing the physical baseline (groundwater and air quality), the biological baseline (plant, animal and aquatic ecosystems) and additional community meetings.
Following the expected completion of its PEA in Q2 2024, the company plans to advance work on both the feasibility study and the environmental permits throughout the remainder of 2024 and into the first quarter of 2025, with the expectation of being in a position to consider a construction decision in Q2 2025.
Oko West represents a brand new gold discovery under Reunion’s portfolio focused on South America’s Guiana Shield. It is located south of the historical “Oko” gold district, some 95 km west of Georgetown.
Initial drilling by the company confirmed the presence of gold mineralization that coincides with the northern portion of a 6-km-long gold-in-soil geochemical anomaly. Most of the drilling to date has taken place at the northern 2 km of that anomaly, referred to as the Kairuni zone.
A first resource estimate was completed in June 2023 following extensive drilling at Kairuni. Earlier this year, Reunion updated that resource to 64.6 million tonnes grading 2.05 g/t gold for 4.3 million oz. in the indicated category and 19.2 million tonnes grading 2.59 g/t gold for 1.6 million oz. in the inferred category.
The February 2024 resource showed both an increase in size and grades, both open pit and underground, and is expected to be included in the upcoming PEA study.
