Junior Miner Finds Breakthrough Gold Source in BC's Cariboo

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1. Disclosure for the quote from the Stewart Thomson article published on February 24, 2026:

1. For the quoted article (published on February 24, 2026), Omineca has paid Street Smart, an affiliate of Streetwise Reports, US$3,550.
2. Author Certification and Compensation: Stewart Thomson was retained and compensated as an independent contractor by Street Smart for writing this article. Mr. Thomson is a retired Canadian financial advisor who has passed the Canadian Securities Course as well as additional technical analysis courses that were mandated by his former employer and approved by Ontario regulatory bodies. For the past 15 years, he has been editing and writing numerous financial newsletters that have a strong focus on charts.  The recommendations and opinions expressed in this content reflect the personal, independent, and objective views of the author regarding any and all of the companies discussed. No part of the compensation received by the author was, is, or will be directly or indirectly tied to the specific recommendations or views expressed.

2. Ownership and Share Structure Information

The information listed above was updated on the date this article was published and was compiled from information from the company and various other data providers.

Omineca Mining and Metals Ltd. (OMM:TSX.V; OMMSF:OTCQB) has identified a hard rock, or lode, gold zone through results from its 2025 winter drilling campaign at the Wingdam gold exploration project in British Columbia's Cariboo Mining District, according to an August 6 release.

The initial mineralized intersections, encountered about 500 meters west of and at a lower elevation than the company's Wingdam underground paleoplacer gold project, support Omineca's long-held view that a nearby lode deposit supplied the high-grade paleoplacer gold found beneath Lightning Creek, the company said.

"These results coincide with recent empirical evidence in the underground placer workings that Lightning Creek flowed from west to east (opposite its present direction) when the gold was eroded into the valley, indicating that the source lies downstream of the placer deposits," the release said. "Omineca's ongoing exploration program will focus on expanding the footprint of this discovery with details to be announced once finalized."

The winter drill program returned several notable gold intercepts, including hole WD25-41, which cut 4.84 grams per tonne (g/t) gold over 1.07 meters from 158.98 to 160.05 meters, and hole WD25-42, which intersected 1.25 g/t gold over 2 meters from 345 to 347 meters.

The company said the discovery marks the first identification of a lode source capable of explaining the presence of autochthonous placer gold within the rich paleoplacer deposit beneath Lightning Creek, 165 years after placer gold was first found in the valley. Omineca noted that the geological relationship between ophiolites, representing uplifted ancient ocean floor, and orogenic gold systems in British Columbia makes the Wingdam area especially prospective because the Slide Mountain Terrane is well preserved along the nearby Eureka Thrust Fault.

According to the company, the highest-grade intersection from the drill program occurred within amygdaloidal basalt associated with the Slide Mountain Terrane. These ultramafic rocks, which originated as oceanic crust, are linked to several of British Columbia's major orogenic gold districts, including the Barkerville Gold camp operated by Osisko Development about 30 kilometers east of Wingdam, the Cassiar gold camp in northern British Columbia, the historic Bralorne mining camp farther west, and the Greenwood Mining District in southern British Columbia. Each of these districts shares a structural association with ophiolitic seafloor rocks.

Omineca said its exploration model proposes that the rich placer gold beneath Lightning Creek originated from a nearby hard rock source and that dramatic changes in regional drainage patterns resulted from isostatic depression caused by the immense weight of the Cordilleran ice sheet. The company said this glacial loading depressed the crust west of Wingdam sufficiently to redirect the Fraser River from its former northward course to its present southward flow roughly 760,000 years ago. It also believes Lightning Creek reversed direction about 200,000 years ago, changing from an eastward-flowing stream to its current westward course.

The company said these geological forces, together with possible renewed movement and subsidence along the Eureka Thrust Fault, explain why the newly recognized lode source lies downstream, or west, of the placer deposit at depths matching or extending below the Wingdam underground workings. Omineca noted that those workings yielded 173.4 ounces of placer gold from a single crosscut measuring 2.4 meters wide, 2.4 meters high, and 23.5 meters long in 2012.

Omineca added that observations from its underground development now confirm its theory that Lightning Creek once flowed in the opposite direction. The company said exposures in Crosscut No. 2, viewed in cross section looking north, display imbricated pebbles and cobbles within a brown gravel layer, indicating that water once moved from west to east through the Lightning Creek valley, reversing the direction of the present-day stream.

Details of Campaign

Omineca said its 2025 exploration campaign at Wingdam completed 3,091.9 meters of drilling across six NQ diamond drill holes. Newmac carried out the drilling, while TerraLogic Exploration of Cranbrook, British Columbia, logged and sampled the drill core. The program generated 1,978 drill core samples along with 179 quality assurance and quality control samples.

The company said the 2025 program was built on results from the previous year's exploration by extending drilling to greater depths below the Wingdam underground paleoplacer workings. The campaign targeted areas down dip from mineralization encountered in hole WD24-37 within an ultramafic unit and also tested ground southeast of that hole along the Eureka Thrust Fault toward a magnetic anomaly identified through an unmanned aerial vehicle survey.

According to Omineca, hole WD25-41 tested the strongest gold anomalies identified during the 2024 program by following up on mineralization intersected in hole WD24-37. The earlier hole returned anomalous gold values of 870 parts per billion over a two-meter interval within brecciated and faulted ultramafic amygdaloidal basalt, and also encountered veining at depth near the transition between magnetic highs and lows outlined by the 2024 drone magnetic survey. The company said hole WD25-41 successfully re-evaluated those targets and produced the highest-grade diamond drill intersection recorded on the property to date, returning 4.84 g/t gold over 1.07 meters from 158.98 to 160.05 meters. Omineca added that the mineralized interval contained localized fracturing, calcite-quartz veins measuring between 2.0 and 6.0 centimeters wide, and traces of disseminated pyrite.

The company said hole WD25-42 was drilled from the same location as WD25-41 but in a northeasterly direction to test the magnetic high identified by the 2024 UAV magnetic survey and follow mineralization recognized southeast of WD24-37. The hole intersected gold mineralization between 345.00 and 347.00 meters, returning 1.25 g/t gold within lithic wacke containing small quartz veinlets and minor disseminated pyrrhotite and pyrite.

Omineca said the 2025 drilling program confirmed the presence of high-grade gold mineralization on the southeastern side of Lightning Creek in association with ultramafic rocks and quartz-calcite veining. With a lode gold discovery now established near the underground paleoplacer deposit, the company plans to accelerate exploration of hydrothermal gold mineralization related to the Eureka Thrust Fault, with the next phase of work concentrating on the immediate area surrounding the new discovery.

The company noted that crews sampled each NQ drill hole from top to bottom, cut the core in half, and submitted half-core samples to AGAT Laboratories in Calgary, Alberta. AGAT prepared the samples, analyzed gold using fire assay methods, and tested metals and trace elements using four-acid digestion followed by ICP-OES/MS analysis. Omineca added that the true thickness of the mineralized intervals has not yet been determined.

Eureka Zone 'A Winner for Miners'

¹According to a technical review of the stock by Stewart Thomson on February 24, Omineca aims to commercially recover the alluvial gold that has settled beneath Lightning Creek. Along the deep lead channel basement, the gold appears as native placer particles averaging 90.9% purity (909 fineness), and gravity separation pulls them out efficiently, requiring no crushing, milling, or leaching, he said.

"This channel could contain some of the highest unmined placer gold concentrations historically reported in all of the Cariboo Mining District… and perhaps throughout all of British Columbia," Thomson's report said.

Wingdam forms part of the much larger Eureka thrust fault trend, which also hosts the multimillion-ounce Spanish Mountain mine, the high-grade Karus Gold discovery, and the recently launched Golden Cariboo project to the north.

"The Eureka zone has clearly been a winner for miners," Stewart noted.

Thomson gave the stock a rating of Speculative Buy. In an updated analysis on August 6, he said a large inverse head-and-shoulders pattern he had noted earlier has now developed more fully — where it was still forming when first flagged, the right shoulder and neckline have become far more defined, strengthening the bullish setup. Thomson also points to rising on-balance volume (OBV), a sign that accumulation is building beneath the price action, alongside a rising RSI and a fresh buy signal on the Stochastics — momentum indicators that suggest the technical picture is turning in the stock's favor.

To the upside, Thomson identifies three chart resistance zones for profit booking: CA$0.14, CA$0.30, and CA$0.75. Those levels lay out a clear framework for taking money off the table as the pattern plays out, with the first target sitting close to current trading and the CA$0.75 zone marking the more ambitious longer-term objective should the inverse head-

The Catalyst: Renewed Momentum for the Yellow Metal?

Gold prices climbed to new session highs after fresh U.S. employment data showed private-sector hiring slowed more than expected in July, according to an August 5 Kitco News report by Neils Christensen.

Payroll processor ADP reported that U.S. private employers added 44,000 jobs during the month, missing economists' expectations for 68,000 new positions. At the same time, the report showed wage growth remained resilient across the labor market.

"Job-changers are highly sensitive to real-time economic conditions, and their rapid pay growth implies supply constraints in parts of the labor market," said Dr. Nela Richardson, Chief Economist at ADP, in the report. "Typical hiring patterns, meanwhile, are changing as employers react to shifting macroeconomic conditions."

The weaker-than-anticipated hiring data lifted gold prices, with spot gold recently trading at US$4,210.50 per ounce, an increase of more than 3% on the day after extending the strong rally that began overnight.

Christensen reported that Waleed Said, Technical Analyst at GivTrade, believes the latest payroll figures add to evidence that the U.S. labor market is continuing to soften, a trend he expects will remain supportive of gold. "Gold's initial reaction to the upside is mainly based on the fact that the Fed has been pushed into a corner to support the job market, as this is part of its primary mandate. But traders should remember that this is only half of the picture, as the big number is coming on Friday, which is going to bring the real fireworks,” he said.

Some analysts also said the latest employment report creates a more complicated backdrop for Federal Reserve policymakers because wage growth remains firm even as hiring slows. According to ADP, workers who stayed with their current employers received annual wage increases of 4.4% in July, matching June's pace, while employees who switched jobs saw average annual pay gains rise to 7% from 6.6% a month earlier.

Technical analysis based on a four-hour chart indicated that gold broke decisively above its recent consolidation range between US$4,040 and US$4,120, surpassed several short- and medium-term moving averages, and advanced beyond the previous high of US$4,202.71, noted Andy Chen for TradingKey on August 5. Analysts said the breakout signals renewed bullish momentum, although they cautioned that traders should watch whether prices can hold above the breakout level instead of quickly retreating.

Analysts identified US$4,202.71 as the first key support level, saying a successful retest would reinforce the breakout. They added that additional support lies near the 0.786 Fibonacci retracement at US$4,150.23, with a broader support zone between US$4,109.92 and US$4,081.25 if that level fails, the report said.

On the upside, analysts said that if gold remains above US$4,202.71, the next potential targets are the 1.272 Fibonacci extension at US$4,268.78 and the 1.618 Fibonacci extension at US$4,352.82.

Ownership and Share Structure²

About 24% of the company is owned by insiders and management, and the rest is retail.

Omineca has 267.71 million shares outstanding. Its market cap is CA$13.34 million. Its 52-week range is CA$0.04–CA$0.14 per share.

Common Investor Questions

What did Omineca just announce? On August 6, 2026, Omineca reported the discovery of a hard-rock (lode) gold zone at its Wingdam project in British Columbia's Cariboo Mining District, based on results from its 2025 winter drill program. The zone sits about 500 meters west of, and below, the company's Wingdam underground paleoplacer workings.

Why does this discovery matter? For the first time in the 165 years since placer gold was found in the Lightning Creek valley, Omineca says it has identified a lode source that could explain the rich placer gold beneath the creek. That supports the company's long-held thesis that a nearby hard-rock deposit shed the placer gold — and it opens a new hard-rock exploration target alongside the existing placer project.

What were the best drill results? Hole WD25-41 returned 4.84 g/t gold over 1.07 meters (158.98–160.05 m) — the highest-grade diamond-drill intercept on the property to date — within amygdaloidal basalt tied to the Slide Mountain Terrane. Hole WD25-42, drilled from the same pad, cut 1.25 g/t gold over 2.0 meters (345–347 m). The company notes true thickness of the intervals is not yet known.

What geological setting is Omineca targeting? The company is chasing orogenic (hydrothermal) gold associated with ophiolitic Slide Mountain Terrane rocks along the Eureka Thrust Fault. It points to the same structural association at major BC gold camps, including the Barkerville Gold camp (Osisko Development) about 30 km east, the Cassiar camp, the historic Bralorne camp, and the Greenwood district.

What's next? Omineca plans to ramp up the investigation of Eureka Thrust Fault-related hydrothermal gold, with the next phase focused on the immediate area around the new discovery and expanding its footprint.