Guyana’s goldfields significantly underexplored – Australian gold firm

May 19, 2026 News

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…praises country for being last “truly pro-mining nation” in Guiana Shield
…project is twice the combined size of every active gold project in Guyana

By Renay Sambach

(Kaieteur News) – Australian traded company, Altair Minerals Limited is hailing Guyana for being the “last truly pro-mining country” in the Guiana Shield and for boasting mining lands that are significantly underexplored.

After nine months of negotiations, Altair was able to enter into a binding heads of agreement in August 2025, to acquire up to 70% of the Greater Oko Gold Project which spans across 590 square kilometers (km²) contiguous mining lands in Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni).  The joint-venture deal was inked with Guyanese conglomerate, Adamantium Exploration Inc., a company owned by the Alphonso family.

Altair in its disclosure, said the agreement caters for the expansion of up to 3,500 km² of mining lands, positioning the company as the “most dominant explorer” in Guyana.  For comparison, Georgetown has an appropriate area of 39 km² making the Australian firm 590 km² landholdings in Guyana, roughly 15 times the size of Georgetown.

Altair further stated that the strategic acquisition positions the company as a leading explorer in the Guiana Shield, adjacent to nearly nine million ounces of recent high-grade discoveries.

According to the company, the Greater Oko Project, which is in an advanced exploration stage, is considered the largest gold exploration in Guyana and in the Guiana Shield. The company also spotlighted that Greater Oko is twice the combined size of every active gold project in Guyana.

“Guyana has rapidly emerged as a premier gold jurisdiction, drawing increasing attention from major players in the gold exploration space,” Altair said.

Painting Guyana as the “last truly pro-mining” and politically stable country within the Guiana Shield, Altair said that Guyana mining areas host geology similar that of West African countries. It explained that Guyana’s mining lands consists of the same Birimian Greenstone Belt that has underpinned world-class gold discoveries across West Africa— including in Ghana, Ivory Coast, and Burkina Faso.  Altair noted however, that unlike extensive exploration in the African nations, Guyana remains significantly underexplored. Notably, the Guiana Shield spans across six countries and territories: Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, Venezuela, Brazil and Columbia.

Greater Oko is located within one of the most prominent and emerging greenstone belts globally, Alistair stressed. It added that the project represents a groundbreaking and first of a kind consolidation of the “Last El Dorado” of greenstone belts, establishing an irreplicable land position due to fragmentation.

Explaining why its 590 km² contiguous landholding cannot be replicated in Guyana, Altair highlighted that mining permits held by locals mostly range from 0.5 to 5 km2, thereby creating barriers and creating an exhaustive and impractical process to negotiate with countless individual citizens.

“Due to the fragmentation of permits, building a large land position has remained the key barrier to entry, resulting in Guyana remaining untapped by exploration, while hosting the last unexplored Birimian-Like greenstone on the planet within a pro-mining and politically stable jurisdiction – The Last El Dorado,” Alistair Minerals stated.

The landholding consists of four advanced targets: South Oko (Soko), North Peters (NP), Old Granny (OG) and Kmung (KM).  Altair’s initial exploration work is focusing on Soko and NP.

Altair is the third explorer to enter the Oko corridor, following Canadian mining firms G Mining Ventures (GMIN) and G2 Goldfields. South Oko is positioned 1.5 km south of Oko West project which is owned by GMIN.

With GMIN now in play to acquire its fellow Canadian miner G2’s Oko-Ghanie property, the company is positioned to control seven-million ounces of gold in the Oko area by consolidating the adjacent projects. It also expands GMIN’s footprint in Guyana by 293 km², creating a combined contiguous land package of over 362 km².

Altair outlined that GMIN and G2’s exploration success has already validated the untapped potential, establishing multiple tier-1 discoveries made from grassroot exploration campaigns. It added that GMIN’s and G2’s results achieved within a small fraction of the project area validate the potential for multi-million-ounce discoveries.

COMPANY MAKER

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Altair Minerals Limited, Faheem Ahmed has noted that the Greater Oko Project has the potential to be a “company maker” for Altair.

He noted that what the company was able to achieve in Guyana by putting together a completely unique and strategic land package, is virtually impossible for any party to replicate a contiguous block like Altair managed to achieve.

“…let alone with advanced exploration targets and arguably sitting in the hottest gold district in South America and West Africa. It’s a deal which simply can’t be replicated,” Ahmed stated.

The CEO in his remarks also praised Guyana for being a pro-mining jurisdiction and for hosting the same greenstone belts present in Ivory Coast and Ghana.

He continued, “The gold sector in Guyana represents the largest export in country until recent years, with emergence offshore O&G discoveries. Guyana for two years in a row has been the fastest growing GDP nation in the globe, and the coming years will see tremendous flow-through benefits in infrastructure, development and mineral asset value, where we want to be well positioned hosting a tier-1 discovery within a tier-1 jurisdiction.”

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• Altair Minerals Limited, GMIN, Guiana Shield, Mining, pro-mining country

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