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Gold production restarts at Omai
…but Canadian investor worried about financing
A Canadian company that has taken over the Omai facility in Region Eight has started production with 59 ounces of gold mined in March.
But, a storm on Monday has caused flooding, affecting operations.
According to the Mahdia Gold Corp., its Mahdia Gold’s JV partners began production in March 2014 with a single gold recovery unit and by the end of April; a second gold recovery unit was installed. 
“March was a startup month wherein everyone was getting used to the area, equipment and logistics. The initial gold recovery unit produced approximately 59 ounces in March, all of which was sold through the Guyana Gold Board.”
In an update of its progress, the company said last month saw a multitude of maintenance issues and equipment breakdowns, which were sorted out and repaired by the month end.
“May started very well, with both recovery units running well until May 5th when a torrential tropical rain storm passed through the Omai area, causing the Omai River to rise rapidly and flood both work areas, causing temporary damage and loss of recovered gold.”
During the flood, first concerns were for the safety of Roraima’s employees. “No employees were hurt, or in any danger of being hurt. Most stationary equipment was temporarily flooded, but not permanently damaged. The sluices, that were due to be washed on May 6th, were overtopped by the river flood and much of the sluice’s trapped gold was lost to the water current.”
Both operations are now back on stream with the sluices above the storm’s high water mark.
Mahdia said its Management and Directors are continuing to seek all forms of financing. “Management is in discussions with financial firms in Toronto, New York, London, England, and Zurich, Switzerland. In addition to these efforts, the company is in preliminary joint venture discussions with several other gold companies. While management is guardedly optimistic, there is no guarantee that any of these current efforts will provide the much needed finance to move forward with modern gold recovery technology and away from sluices as a primary recovery unit.”
Mahdia said that financing the company becomes more critical as payments to the Guyanese government begin to come due within the next months. “To date, the Government has been very accommodating by working with Mahdia’s management in restructuring payments to a more manageable schedule for the Omai property.
“As some payment is coming due within the month, and given the value of this asset to Mahdia, we will continue to seek assistance as needed. All statutory fees and licences are fully paid and up to date.”
Mahdia Gold gets its name from a popular resource-rich mining community located in central Guyana.
Historically the central Guyanese region was made popular by the Omai gold mine. This mine produced approximately 4.000.000 ounces of gold from two open pits.
Mahdia Gold Corp. has acquired three compelling gold bearing concessions including Omai, Tiger River and White Creek.
Since Omai’s closure a few years ago, Guyana has been without a large scale gold mine. However, this did not stop the country from breaking production records as high world prices continue to attract investors, both local and foreign.
Gold has become the largest foreign currency earner, surpassing rice and sugar.
Government has been keeping a close eye on the sector as the spinoffs have been a boon to the economy as sugar continues to falter.
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