Victory Mines has earned its initial interest in the high-grade Coogee gold project near Kambalda in Western Australia and the company is now gearing up for a 4,000m drilling blitz across the developing gold target where previous tantalising results included 5m at 27.1 g/t gold just under the old open pit. Exploration is scheduled to kick off in earnest by late-September 2020 when the rods will start turning.
The Coogee gold project is located 55km southeast of Kalgoorlie on the north eastern shore of the iconic Lake Lefroy. The existing mine was developed by Ramelius Resources in 2013, with the mid-tier miner extracting 20,400 ounces from a small open pit at an impressive grade of 4.7 g/t gold.
Victory’s initial review of the Coogee deposit indicates that Ramelius may have left more than just a few ounces behind.
Interestingly, other notable results that appear to be begging for a follow up immediately below the old pit floor include 3m at 21.73 g/t gold, 2m at 14.90g/t gold and 2m at an eye-catching 28.70 g/t gold.
Victory Mines Director, Alec Pismiris said:
“The acquisition transforms the Company into a brownfields explorer and gold resource developer in the highly prospective St Ives Goldfield near Kambalda in Western Australia. There are many examples of old high‐grade producing gold mines in Western Australia which have been reworked and have led to discoveries of more significant ounces and we look forward to commencing activities.”
The Coogee project is a joint venture with Ramelius Resources. Victory has now earned its initial 10 per cent interest in the project however it must now spend a total of $2.1 million to earn its full 80 per cent interest under the terms of the farm in agreement.
A review of the project by Victory shows the ore system continues at depth and along strike, with a bounty of hits yet to be followed up with systematic drilling. The more lucrative historic along strike intersections that will no doubt feel the drill bit again include 6m at 16.80 g/t gold from only 36m downhole, 5m at 11.13 g/t gold from 82m and 3m at 21.03 g/t from 104m.
Victory has engaged Strike Drilling to undertake the company’s maiden drilling program at Coogee. The 4,000-metre program will test the known mineralisation over more than 600m of strike with a number of targets being tested including the mineralisation adjacent to and below the existing open pit.
Coogee already hosts a small resource of 96,000 tonnes at a solid 3.4 g/t gold that Victory is no doubt looking to rapidly build upon in the coming months.
The gold mineralisation at Coogee is hosted by an array of south plunging quartz-carbonate veins within a north west trending shear zone. This style of ore is found throughout the Kalgoorlie Goldfields. It is typical of some of the higher grade mines in the region, including the nearby spectacular Beta Hunt gold mine that has been grabbing the headlines of late as it pushes out a wealth of specimen grade gold mineralisation from its recent production.
Curiously, the gold at Coogee is also closely associated with sulphide, copper and magnetite mineralogies. This style of mineralisation lends itself to detection by various remote methods and may result in the company breaking out its geophysical toolbox as it zeroes in on the high-grade lodes throughout the target area.
In addition to Coogee, Victory Mines also owns a number of other developing projects in Australia including its Malamute High Purity Alumina play in NSW, which is advancing through a test work phase and the Copper Mountain project in WA’s revered Paterson province, also home to Rio Tinto’s developing Winu copper discovery amongst others.
With gold continuing to reach for US$2,000 an ounce and drilling at Coogee scheduled to kick off in the coming weeks, Victory is looking well placed to join the bevy of savvy explorers who have managed to successfully breathe new life into old projects of late.
Is your ASX listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Matt Birney
