A district-scale entry into Guyana's +9Moz Oko gold district
Liberty Metals has secured a 90% interest in the Oko North and Oko South Gold Projects: 40 granted mining permits across roughly 180 square kilometres, straddling one of the fastest-growing gold camps discovered anywhere in the world this decade.
The District Story
From jungle greenfields to a C$3 billion takeover in five years
Few gold districts anywhere have created value at the pace of Oko. Liberty's ground sits immediately north and south of the deposits that started it all.
- 2020 to 2021
G2 Goldfields makes the Oko discoveries in the Cuyuni district of Guyana, in Barama-Mazaruni greenstones that share their geological ancestry with the great Birimian goldfields of West Africa.
- April 2025
G Mining Ventures (TSX:GMIN) delivers the Oko West Feasibility Study: Probable Reserves of 4.64Moz gold and Indicated Resources of 5.4Moz, supporting roughly 350,000oz per annum over a 12.3-year mine life.
- April 2026
GMIN announces the acquisition of neighbouring G2 Goldfields for approximately C$3.0 billion (about US$2.2 billion), consolidating the Oko-Ghanie deposits into a single ~362km² Oko Project.
- 29 July 2026
The deal completes. GMIN, now capitalised at approximately CA$14.9 billion, holds 7.0Moz of Measured and Indicated Resources plus 2.3Moz Inferred. G2's remaining Guyanese exploration assets spin out into G3 Goldfields, funded with C$45 million, with the discovery team staying on the hunt in the district.
- 5 August 2026
Liberty appoints former IAMGOLD President and CEO Steve Letwin as a Non-Executive Director, adding a decade of experience running gold mines on both sides of the Birimian-Guiana shield.
- 12 August 2026
Liberty Metals announces the acquisition of the Oko North and Oko South Projects, backed by a A$5.0 million placement, with first fieldwork planned within the week.
Explore The Opportunity
Why Oko North and Oko South matter
Select a theme below to explore the position, the rocks, the deal terms and the gold market backdrop.
Guyanese mining permits are typically granted in small blocks of one to five square kilometres, held by private citizens. Assembling a large contiguous position means negotiating with dozens of separate holders, a barrier that has kept district-scale ground out of reach for most newcomers.
Liberty's package of 40 granted permits across two consolidated blocks is one of the largest contiguous landholdings in the district, and in the Company's words is something that simply cannot be readily replicated.
Oko North directly abuts ground held by G2 Goldfields, now consolidated into GMIN, close to the New Oko Discovery. Oko South sits roughly 30km south of the Oko deposits, covering what Liberty interprets as the southern continuation of the district trend. Together the two blocks span approximately 60km of the district.
Position At A Glance
- ~44,288 acres (~180km²) of granted tenure
- Oko North: on the doorstep of the New Oko Discovery
- Oko South: interpreted southern trend continuation
- Neighbours: GMIN (~CA$14.9B), G3 Goldfields, Altair Minerals (~A$230M)
- Never systematically explored with modern techniques
Before the Atlantic Ocean opened, the Guiana Shield of South America and the West African Leo-Man Shield were one landmass. The same Birimian-style greenstone belts that host world-class gold camps in Ghana, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and Guinea continue, geologically speaking, into Guyana.
The Project sits within the Barama-Mazaruni greenstone belt of the Guiana Shield, and Liberty interprets its tenure to lie within the same shear corridor and greenstone stratigraphy that hosts the Oko deposits.
Small-scale alluvial gold mining by the vendor and local operators across the tenure points to a fertile gold system, yet the ground has never been drilled at depth for its hard rock source. That is the exploration prize.
Geological Pedigree
- Barama-Mazaruni Group, Guiana Shield
- Birimian-style greenstones, the world's premier orogenic gold address
- Interpreted shear corridor continuity with the Oko deposits
- Alluvial gold workings confirm gold in the system
- Hard rock source untested by drilling
Liberty acquires 90% of the Projects from a private Guyanese vendor under a four-year option structure, with total consideration of up to approximately US$8.0 million, the majority back-ended into the third and fourth anniversaries. Liberty can accelerate to 100% at any time, or walk away on 30 days' notice with no ongoing obligation.
A milestone payment of US$15 to US$25 per feasibility-study ounce only crystallises if a bankable Feasibility Study is completed, an outcome the Company estimates is at least five years away, aligning the vendor with exploration success.
In conjunction, Liberty has secured firm commitments for a A$5.0 million placement at A$0.0025 per share, led by a cornerstone group of long-only domestic and international institutional investors, funding the immediate exploration program.
| Payment | Timing | US$ |
|---|---|---|
| Execution (paid) | Paid to GGMC | 346,000 |
| Scheduled 1 & 2 | Within 10 to 30 business days | 854,000 |
| Scheduled 3 & 4 | Years 1 and 2 | 1,800,000 |
| Scheduled 5 & 6 | Years 3 and 4 | 5,000,000 |
| Total | Maximum | ~8,000,000 |
Deal Structure Highlights
- 90% interest, option to move to 100%
- Staged, back-ended payments preserve capital for drilling
- Walk-away right on 30 days' notice
- Milestone payment tied to a bankable Feasibility Study
- A$5.0M placement to fund exploration and working capital
Spot gold, mid-August 2026. All-time high: US$5,597/oz, January 2026.
Gold has been one of the defining trades of the decade. The metal is up roughly 30% year on year and touched a record above US$5,500 per ounce in January 2026, before consolidating through the middle of the year.
The structural drivers remain firmly in place: central banks buying around 1,000 tonnes a year as they diversify away from the US dollar, renewed inflows into gold-backed ETFs, persistent inflation and elevated sovereign debt driving the so-called debasement trade.
Looking forward, major institutions remain constructive. J.P. Morgan sees gold pushing towards US$6,000/oz by the end of 2026 and US$6,300/oz in 2027, Goldman Sachs targets US$4,900 for end-2026 with a longer-run range of US$5,400 to US$5,600, and a July 2026 Reuters poll of 29 analysts returned a median of US$4,509 for 2026 and US$4,610 for 2027. For gold explorers in emerging districts, that backdrop is a powerful tailwind.
Analyst Targets (US$/oz)
Third-party forecasts as reported publicly, mid-2026. Forecasts are not guarantees and prices may fall as well as rise.
Figure 1 | Interactive
The Oko district: Liberty's ground, north and south of a 9Moz camp
Two consolidated blocks along the interpreted shear corridor. Oko North directly abuts the G2 Goldfields / GMIN ground near the New Oko Discovery; Oko South covers the interpreted southern continuation of the trend, roughly 30km south of the Oko deposits. Tap tenure or prospects for details, and toggle layers to compare landholders.
Figure 1: Regional geological setting of the Oko North and Oko South Projects within the Barama-Mazaruni greenstone belt of the Guiana Shield, showing the two consolidated blocks relative to the ground held by G2 Goldfields / GMIN. Oko North directly abuts ground held by G2 Goldfields; Oko South is located approximately 30km south of the Oko deposits. The Project also lies in close proximity to ground held by G3 Goldfields (G3). Liberty's Oko North and Oko South tenure is interpreted to lie within the same shear corridor and greenstone belt stratigraphy that hosts the Oko deposits. Stylised interactive recreation for illustration; not to scale and not a tenement plan. Nearby deposits, discoveries and drill results shown are on third-party ground and are not indicative of mineralisation on the Company's tenure. Refer to the Proximity and Cautionary Statement in the full announcement.
Board Strength
A director who has already mined this shield, on both sides of the Atlantic
Six days before announcing the Oko acquisition, Liberty appointed Steve Letwin, former President and CEO of IAMGOLD Corporation, to its Board. The timing is no coincidence: his career maps almost perfectly onto the opportunity.
Mr Letwin led IAMGOLD, the dual-listed gold miner with a market capitalisation of approximately C$11.5 billion, for a decade from 2010 to 2020, building it into a leading intermediate producer with four operating mines and development projects spanning North America, South America and West Africa. That portfolio placed him on both halves of the very shield Liberty is now exploring: IAMGOLD's flagship operations included Rosebel in Suriname's Guiana Shield and Essakane in Burkina Faso's Birimian belt, both of which appear on the map below as neighbours in geological terms to Liberty's Oko ground.
His hands-on approach to government and stakeholder relations in exactly these jurisdictions was recognised with national honours from both host regions: the Order of the Yellow Star in Suriname and L'Officier de l'Ordre National in Burkina Faso. For a company entering Guyana, where permits sit with private citizens and regulatory consents run through the GGMC and the Minister of Natural Resources, that is directly relevant experience, not a decorative CV line.
Equally relevant is his specialisation in corporate finance and M&A, backed by an extensive North American capital markets network. The Oko district's value is being set on the TSX, where G Mining Ventures completed its C$3.0 billion takeover of G2 Goldfields in July 2026. And should exploration succeed to the point where the Milestone Payment ever crystallises, Liberty has flagged funding options including debt, project finance, streaming and joint ventures, all territory Mr Letwin has navigated at multi-billion-dollar scale.
Steve Letwin At A Glance
- President and CEO of IAMGOLD (~C$11.5B) for 10 years
- Ran mines in the Guiana Shield (Suriname) and Birimian belt (Burkina Faso)
- North American Mining Executive of the Year, 2018
- National honours from Suriname and Burkina Faso for stakeholder leadership
- Four decades in resources and energy; corporate finance and M&A specialist
- 25 years of public company board and governance experience
- Currently CEO of Mancal Corporation, Board Chair of Cassiar Gold, director of Hess Midstream
Interactive Map
One shield, two continents: the Birimian gold connection
Before the Atlantic Ocean opened, the Guiana Shield of South America and the West African Leo-Man Shield were a single landmass. The greenstone belts that host Obuasi, Tarkwa, Ahafo and Essakane continue into Guyana, where Liberty's Oko Project sits. Tap any deposit to explore, or split the Atlantic to watch the continents drift.
Stylised geological sketch after Figure 2 of the Liberty Metals ASX announcement dated 12 August 2026. Pre-Atlantic continental reconstruction shown for illustration; not to scale and not a tenement plan. Deposits shown are owned by third parties and are not indicative of mineralisation on the Company's tenure. See the Proximity and Cautionary Statement in the full announcement.
What Happens Next
Boots on the ground within the week
Liberty's approach is disciplined and methodical: data first, then geochemistry, then the drill bit.
Immediate: data compilation and mapping
Compilation of historical data plus geological mapping and structural interpretation across the interpreted continuation of the Oko trend within the Company's tenure, with first fieldwork planned to commence in the coming week.
Q3 2026: maiden geochemical program
A maiden systematic soil sampling and trenching program, together with maiden auger drilling, to define drill targets. As the Company notes, its neighbours have shown exactly what early-stage geochemistry on this trend can convert into.
Then: maiden drill targets and drilling campaign
Definition of maiden drill targets and planning for a maiden drilling campaign, the first ever test of the hard rock source beneath tenure-wide alluvial gold workings.
Liberty Metals Ltd | ASX:LIB
Positioned in one of the world's premier emerging gold camps
General information only. This summary is based on the Liberty Metals ASX announcements dated 5 August 2026 and 12 August 2026 and publicly available market commentary. It is general information only and does not constitute financial product advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Investors should read the full ASX announcement and seek independent professional advice before making any investment decision.
