Winding up its biggest single aircore drilling program to date at its Pinjin gold project, Kalgoorlie Gold Mining has bored through more than 7212 metres in a first-pass blitz of its previously untested Laverton Tectonic Zone (LTZ) Flexure target, 140km north-east of the goldfields hub of Kalgoorlie-Boulder in Western Australia.
The company's Flexure target sits 3.5km southeast of its existing Kirgella Gift and Providence gold deposits, which hold a combined 76,400-ounce inferred resource. The company put in a total of 225 holes to systematically test a swag of geophysical and structural gold targets identified within a prominent bend in the regional-scale LTZ.
KalGold's Pinjin project covers a substantial slice of the southern portion of the hugely productive LTZ, a major 250-kilometre-long, gold-rich, crustal-depth structural corridor in WA's Eastern Goldfields which has delivered more than 30 million ounces of gold from some of the WA's biggest gold mines. The LTZ is one of Australia's premier orogenic gold districts, hosting world-class multi-million-ounce deposits including Sunrise Dam, Wallaby and Granny Smith, placing KalGold's Pinjin gold project in a tier-one mineral jurisdiction.
Structural bends and jogs in major mineralised systems are classic geological traps for focusing and depositing mineralisation. The methodical testing of a previously ignored structural bend in a known multi-million-ounce gold corridor is exactly the kind of potentially-transformative work that can swivel heads in the Eastern Goldfields.
Notably, KalGold says the program's total metreage was less than the 10,750m planned due to shallower-than-expected drilling depths which averaged just 32m. The company figures its first-pass exploration will be done and dusted for roughly two-thirds of the anticipated cost, which will free up capital for follow-up work.
While most holes were drilled to blade refusal - the depth below which the drill bit or rig configuration cannot permit further penetration - in some areas the drillers employed a hammer drill bit to punch through resistant horizons such as silcrete to enable a deeper reach.
The company is now awaiting assay results, which are expected from the laboratory in about six weeks.
Kalgoorlie Gold Mining managing director and chief executive officer Dr Matt Painter said: “The KalGold team safely completed our largest single aircore drill program to date. I am encouraged by geological observations during the drill program, with numerous features identified in drill chips that are consistent with but not necessarily indicative of gold mineralisation. This will be resolved when assay results are returned from the laboratory over the next 6 weeks.”
With the market awaiting the assay results from Flexure, KalGold's drill rods continue to spin elsewhere. Its RC drilling at the Lighthorse prospect, also within the Pinjin project and just 2km northwest of the combined Kirgella Gift and Providence deposits, is nearing completion and is expected to conclude next week.
That program has been focused on defining mineralisation at the northern extent of the prospect, where the company made a greenfields discovery in 2025 with a headline-grabbing drill hit of 17 metres assaying 4.81 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 48m depth, including a stellar 8m going 9.21 g/t gold from 52m depth. Encouragingly, that hole ended in mineralisation, suggesting additional potential below.
With Flexure's first aircore drilling now put to bed - barring assay returns and interpretation of results - and the Lighthorse RC campaign winding up, KalGold is already planning its next moves. Further aircore drilling in the Flexure area is slated to kick off in late September or early October, with the final program design to be guided by the upcoming assay results. With $1.82 million in cash and no debt at the end of the June quarter, the company looks well-funded for its ongoing work.
The company also has its eyes on the Rebecca geological sequence to the north and northeast of Flexure, in addition to other areas between the Lighthorse prospect and its T15 target to the south. With a solid newsflow pipeline established, the market will be watching for the first assays from KalGold's Flexure program to see if this promising and significant structural curiosity is about to give up its secrets.
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By Doug Bright
