Kalgoorlie Gold Mining has extended a prospective gold strike at its Pinjin project in Western Australia’s Goldfields region to 21km after being granted a new 3.5-square-kilometre parcel of contiguous ground at the site that sits 140km north-east of Kalgoorlie.
The new ground, which strategically links the company’s tenements, is centred about 3.75km south along strike from its Wessex target and about 8km north along strike from its historic Kirgella Gift and Providence gold prospects.
Just two months ago, KalGold revealed it had obtained thick gold intercepts in air-core (AC) drilling at its Wessex target, including a notable hit of 28m at 1.27 grams per tonne gold from 36m with 8m at 1.9g/t and 8m going 2.15g/t. A second hole came up with 12m at 1.7g/t gold including 4m running 3.07g/t.
The company noted at the time that it considered its results from that program to be “exceptional” for shallow AC drilling and showed evidence that it could possibly be part of a broader gold system related to Hawthorn Resources’ Anglo-Saxon open pit mine, which sits just 1km north-east of the Wessex drilling.
Additionally, it said the Wessex results indicate that the target remains open both north and south of the present drilling limits and also down-dip to the east – towards Anglo-Saxon – but requires reverse-circulation (RC) drilling to further resolve the puzzle.
Further south along strike, previous work by KalGold focussed on Kirgella Gift and Providence. The two historic shows lie about 21km north along the same strike trend from Ramelius Resources’ 1.04 million-ounce Rebecca gold project.
Kalgoorlie Gold Mining managing director Matthew Painter said: “In relatively unexplored portions of major gold-mineralising structures like the Laverton Tectonic Zone, it is important for KalGold to maximise its ground coverage so as many opportunities as possible can be realised. KalGold effectively has a first-mover advantage over the southern Pinjin area, with the aim of discovering new gold deposits in one of the major, crustal-scale gold mineralising structures of the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia.”
Late last year, KalGold announced significant results from its RC drilling at Kirgella Gift that included 11m at 1.56g/t gold from 24m including 4m at 2.98g/t from 27m and 6m going 1.18g/t from 45m. Results revealed from Providence at the same time included 11m at 2.51g/t gold from 32m including 4m at 5.63g/t from 39m.
The most significant aspect of the strike continuity between the various projects cited is that the trend lies on the massive crustal-scale Laverton Tectonic Zone (LTZ) that is estimated to have produced more than 30 million ounces of gold. The LTZ has given rise to a host of gold projects including, from north to south, Granny Smith-Wallaby, Sunrise Dam, Red October, Linden Gold, Deep South, Anglo-Saxon and Rebecca.
Importantly, many of the major gold projects and prospects also occur along a structurally-significant, regional-scale flexure in the LTZ. The flexure is also mirrored by the nearby Celia Tectonic Zone (CTZ) and the Keith-Kilkenny Tectonic Zone (KTZ). Each flexure is associated with gold mineralisation such as Mt Morgans and KalGold’s own Pinjin ground on the CTZ and Mulgabbie North and Carosue Dam on the KTZ.
Overall, it may be said that much of the significant area of influence relating to one of more of the flexures remains largely underexplored.
KalGold has been steadily building a presence in the area with the aim of progressively building a mineral resource base throughout the project area that could potentially feed a planned mill. But none of that would happen without resource targets and the company already has a portfolio of options along its 21km strike trend between Wessex and Kirgella-Providence – including its T12 and T15 targets and Rebecca West, which exhibits “superficial affinities” with the Wallaby-Granny Smith mineralisation near Lake Carey.
The targets are complemented by additional investigations in KalGold’s separate tenement group within 20km to the north-west that sits mostly on the important CTZ, including its Jungle Dam gold-in-granite prospect that may also have lithium potential relating to its granitoid associations.
In all, it appears to be busy times ahead for KalGold.
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By Doug Bright
