Omai banking on Amaila Falls hydro project to boost gold processing capacity

Jun 30, 2026 News

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(Kaieteur News) – Canadian miner Omai Gold Mines Corp. has disclosed that future expansions of its processing plant at its gold project in Guyana could benefit from Guyana’s potential near-future development of lower cost, “green” energy solutions including the proposed Amaila Falls Hydropower Project.

The company recently reported that phase one of metallurgical test work at its Omai Gold Project has improved projected gold recovery rates to as high as 95%.  This means that the company is able to extract a greater percentage of gold contained in ore during processing.

Omai’s proposed processing plant would include conventional crushing, grinding and carbon-in-leach circuits, with the option of incorporating gravity recovery to capture coarse gold.

Using its latest Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE), Omai projects that the shear-hosted Wenot Deposit and the adjacent intrusion-hosted Gilt Deposit could support a processing plant capable of handling between 20,000 and 25,000 tonnes of ore per day (tpd), up from the earlier projected 15,000 to 18,000 tpd.

According to Omai, future plant expansions could benefit from planned energy projects in Guyana like government’s planned 165-megawatt (165MW) Amaila Falls Hydropower Project and the liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility which is a component of the US$2 billion Gas-to-Energy (GTE) project at Wales, West Bank Demerara.

The Amaila Falls Hydro project was introduced by a previous PPP/C Administration in 2011, but project faced obstacles in its realisation and was shelved on multiple occasions.

The project is located 110 miles west of Omai’s gold project located in Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni). Omai highlighted that government has recently gone out to tender with the design for Amaila Falls project, including a transmission line to within 22 km of the proposed Omai plant site.

In response to government’s revised Request for Proposals (RFP), five bids were received in May from international contractors for the Amaila Falls Project, three of which are Chinese companies.

The project which is being executed through the Office of the Prime Minister, will be done under a Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT) model, with a minimum installed capacity of 165 MW.

Kaieteur News reported that some companies bid either via consortium or joint venture. Out of the five bids, three are from China, while the other two are headquartered in the United States of America and India. According to information released on NPTAB website the five bidders are Afcon Infrastructure Limited (of India) in joint venture with Scandian Infrastructure AB (of Sweden); CAMCE-CMEC Consortium (of China) who bid US$668,000,000; China Gezhouba Group Company Limited-HYI (of China) who bid US$432,338,377; OEC USA in joint venture with GE Vernova (of USA), and Worley (of Australia) who bid US$800,060,842; and Sinohydro Corporation Limited (of China) who bid US$416,866,949.21.

Meanwhile, the Wales GTE project, which includes the construction of a 300-megawatt (MW) power plant and the LNG facility Wales.  The project has faced mounting criticisms over delays and escalating costs.

The project is now expected to achieve first power by the end of 2026. The project’s initial deadline was December 2024. While the first power turbine is expected to come online by the end of 2026, the other gas turbines are expected to be fully commissioned by the first quarter of 2027 and the combined cycle operation to be completed by June 2027.

Omai has previously listed the US$190 million Linden-to-Mabura Road project as another key piece of infrastructure expected to benefit its operations. The road passes within 12 kilometres of the company’s property.

In 2020, the Government of Guyana secured a loan for this project. The US$190 million road project comprises a US$112-million loan from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), a grant of £50 million (US$66 million) from the Government of the United Kingdom via the CDB – administered United Kingdom Caribbean Infrastructure Fund, along with US$12 million provided by government.

Since its return to Guyana’s mining sector in 2020, Omai, through its subsidiary Avalon Gold Exploration Inc., has identified 2.5 million ounces of gold in the indicated category at the historic Omai Gold project. The company holds 100% interest in the project which hosts two orogenic gold deposits: Wenot and Gilt.  The company has been engaged in drilling activities at both the Wenot and Gilt deposits as part of the company’s 50,000-metre exploration programme as preparations are ongoing for the project’s Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA), expected within the next four to six weeks.

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• Amaila Falls Hydro project, gold processing, Omai, Omai Gold Mines

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