Barry FitzGerald‘s “Garimpeiro” column has tracked the resources sector for 35 years, and now he’s turning his attention to junior explorers chasing big gold finds beyond Australia’s borders.
Chasing the Big Find Beyond the Goldfields
Most junior ASX explorers spend their time in Western Australia’s Goldfields hoping for a major discovery. But major finds are rare — the last significant one was De Grey’s Hemi discovery in the Pilbara in 2019.
To improve their odds, some explorers are heading to global hotspots. Two ASX-listed companies, Altair Minerals and Liberty Metals (undergoing a name change to El Dorado Goldfields), have both set their sights on Guyana’s Oko gold district.
They’re following a path blazed by Canadian companies, which have found over 9.3 million ounces of gold in the Oko district in the past five years. The region sits within the Guiana Shield, which shares geological similarities with West Africa’s Birimian belts, another major gold exploration hub.
Consolidation and Development in Oko
The Oko district has seen significant consolidation under Canada’s C$14.5 billion G Mining Ventures (GMIN). Through multi-billion-dollar acquisitions, GMIN now controls the combined Oko West and Oko Ghanie discoveries.
GMIN is developing what it calls the largest gold project under construction globally, targeting commercial production by January 2028 at a rate of 500,000 ounces annually. Many agree the Oko region still holds substantial untapped potential.
Altair Leads the Aussie Charge
Altair Minerals is further along in its Oko exploration, with three drills active at its South Oko project near GMIN’s development, and at North Peters, located 34km west with historical high-grade resources.
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In early September, Altair announced plans to increase drilling across its Greater Oko project to 8,000 meters per month. Endeavour Mining, West Africa’s largest gold producer, invested $28.2 million in Altair through a placement completed in June, taking a 9.9% stake.
With this drilling pace, results from South Oko and North Peters are expected soon. Altair’s $225 million pre-discovery market capitalization reflects strong investor interest at 3.4 cents per share.
El Dorado Enters the Fray
El Dorado Goldfields entered the Oko district in August, raising $5 million to begin ground operations across its Oko North and Oko South projects. Oko North borders GMIN’s 3.5 million ounce Oko Ghanie deposit.
Trading at 0.3 cents with a $30.4 million market cap, El Dorado has assembled an exploration team including Boaz Wade, former VP of exploration at G2 Goldfields, who helped discover Oko Ghanie before its acquisition by GMIN.
The company recently reported initial rock-chip assays from Oko North, showing multiple 1g/t-plus gold intercepts that confirm in-situ mineralization and basement shearing. A 5,000-point geochemical soil sampling program is underway across both project areas, aiming to identify priority drill targets for initial drilling planned at Oko North.
El Dorado’s Oko South project covers an interpreted southern continuation of the district trend hosting the various Oko deposits. The company’s entry into the Oko district follows the same strategic logic as Altair, leveraging the proven geological framework of the Guiana Shield to target new discoveries. The team’s first-pass results at Oko North demonstrated widespread gold mineralization within the property boundaries, with the in-situ nature of the intercepts indicating that the gold occurrences are not merely surface expressions but part of deeper, more extensive systems.
