As the gold price continues its meteoric rise, tipping over $3500 per ounce, Kalgoorlie Gold Mining has completed an interpretation of its Pinjin project in WA’s goldfields, revealing a clutch of compelling new targets.
KalGold is looking to outline more shallow gold mineralisation suitable for open pit mining to feed into nearby gold mines.
It has already successfully reappraisal its Kirgella Gift and Providence targets where the company has identified thick zones of gold mineralisation lying only 3 metres below the surface. Management says work is progressing towards a maiden resource over the pair.
Drawing on both public data sets and its own geological observations, KalGold has ranked the targets that lie along the historically prolific 30-million-ounce Laverton Tectonic Zone (LTZ),
The LTZ is host to AngloGold Ashanti’s producing Sunrise Dam that has more than 7 million ounces of gold and Gold Fields’ Granny Smith deposit with more than 14 million ounces.
KalGold’s Pinjin tenure stretches over 246 square kilometres and is a mere 21 km north of Ramelius Resources’ Rebecca gold project that houses an indicated gold resource of 29 million tonnes grading 1.2g/t for 1.1 million ounces.
The company says preparation is well underway for the next drilling program, with the Harbour Lights and Wessex targets the first to feel the bite of the drill bit.
Harbour Lights shares a fence with Hawthorn Resources’ “Trouser Legs” mining lease where the latter reported late last year an eye-catching 22m averaging 5.64 grams per tonne from 23 metres which included 6m tipping in at 18.59 g/t at its Harbour Lights South deposit.
Encouragingly, the Harbour Lights target on KalGold’s tenure follows the continuation of the magnetic ridge that defines gold mineralisation on Hawthorn’s tenure. What’s more – the ridge runs continuously from the tenement boundary southward for almost 5km and remains elusively untouched by the drill bit.
Reading from the same playbook, the Wessex target sits adjacent to Hawthorn’s Wessex deposit where that company has intersected gold right up to the tenement boundary including 8m running at 7.36 g/t from 32m.
The Wessex target extends over a 1350m strike parallel to the tenement boundary.
Historic drilling on the neighbouring tenure reveals a string of drill holes angled towards KalGold tenure, with holes on the tenement boundary drilled vertically to follow mineralisation as far as possible.
The company says its first target at Wessex will be to follow and extend the known gold mineralisation into its own patch along the tenement boundary.
Tallied up, Hawthorn’s Anglo Saxon deposits account for an underground mineral resource estimate of 785,000 tonnes averaging 6.1 g/t for 154,000 ounces of the precious yellow metal using a generous 4.5 g/t cut-off.
Management says it has also identified a series of additional targets located along the LTZ throughout the Pinjin project area that will undergo systematic exploration. According to the company, these new target areas have only been subject to cursory historic exploration.
Gold stocks have been relegated to the “poor cousin” category in recent years, in favour of their lithium and rare earths counterparts. However a quick look at several ASX gold companies suggests a notable upward shift in gold stock values. KalGold’s neighbour, Ramelius has risen almost 40 per cent since from a low of $1.36 in late February to today’s high of $1.91, Evolution Mining is up 24 per cent to $3.77 in the same period and Northern Star has moved over 20 per cent to $14.67 from a low of $12.08 in January.
With the rising gold price showing no signs of slowing down, the winds of change are beginning to blow in favour of gold stocks. With a suite of highly prospective targets in a prospective patch of WA’s goldfields and a rig on the move, KalGold will no doubt be hoping the prevailing winds can lift its own stock.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Helen Barling
